East Timor

East Timor prepares to elect first president

Reuters - January 25, 2002

Dili -- East Timor has started preparing for its first presidential elections but with full independence to follow soon after, time is of the essence.

The elections in the UN-run territory are scheduled for April 14 with formal independence due to be declared on May 20.

"Due to time constraints, we cannot do a run-off election. For this time, it will be the person getting the highest number of votes," UN electoral official Carlos Valenzuela said on Friday.

The draft constitution calls for the president to be elected by a majority of voters, or 50 percent plus one. It also states there should be a run-off election between the two highest vote getters if no candidate wins a majority.

Charismatic independence hero Xanana Gusmao, who once led the now demobilised Falintil guerrillas, is almost certain to be elected to lead the fledgeling nation.

It is unclear how many candidates will stand.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) held a series of electoral briefings in East Timor this week to explain voting regulations recently approved by the constitutional assembly.

Officials have said around 420,000 Timorese -- around half the population -- are eligible to vote for the new president, due to be announced within a week of the elections.

East Timor is still recovering from an overwhelming vote to break from 24 years of Indonesian rule, a result which unleashed a wave of violence across the territory by pro-Jakarta militia.

Some 1000 people were estimated to have been killed in the violence and thousands were herded across the border into Indonesian West Timor.

Campaign launched for new elections

Green Left Weekly - January 23, 2002

Jon Land -- As East Timor's Constituent Assembly draws closer to finalising the nation's constitution there is increasing debate over whether fresh elections should be held for the proposed Legislative Assembly. Chief Minister Mari Alkatiri is adamantly opposed to such a move, stating that "opting for new elections is openly to want to provoke crises".

On January 17, United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor chief administrator Sergio de Mello announced that presidential elections would take place on April 14. When questioned on the issue of elections for the legislature, he stated that this was a decision solely for the Constituent Assembly.

Under regulations adopted by UNTAET in March 2001 for the August 30 Constituent Assembly elections, the assembly has the option, in the process of drafting the constitution, to transform itself into the Legislative Assembly.

A universal complaint from election monitors, East Timorese NGO's and from many of the country's political parties was that many voters did not fully understand the implications of the ambiguous electoral regulation permitting the Constituent Assembly to convert itself into a permanent legislature.

The call for fresh elections to the legislature has come from both radical and conservative sides of East Timorese politics. Popular leader and president-to-be, Xanana Gusmao, has publicly stated his support for legislative elections, as has religious leader Bishop Carlos Belo. Avelino da Silva, secretary general of the Socialist Party of Timor (PST), told Green Left Weekly that "new elections would serve to strengthen democracy and accountability".

An alliance called the Group for the Defence of Democracy, Peace and Stability in East Timor (GDDPE) issued a public statement and petition on January 3, calling for the "simultaneous holding of presidential and legislative elections" by May 20 (the date set for the formal transfer of power from UNTAET) or "legislative elections soon after independence, preferably on August 30".

The GDDPE is headed by Manuel Carrascalao, former head of the National Council, and includes representatives from the PST, the Democratic Party (PD), the Social-Democratic Party (PSD), the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) plus a number of independents. The PD and PSD form the largest bloc in the Constituent Assembly after Fretilin. In response to the formation of the GDDPE, Alkatiri claimed the group was merely "dreaming of better results than at the last elections".

Da Silva told Green Left Weekly that the GDDPE plans to continue to lobby members of the Constituent Assembly and organise public meetings and rallies in support of legislative elections.

International labour body raps Indonesian bosses for rejecting minimum wage Agence France Presse - January 25, 2002

Jakarta -- An international labour body has strongly criticised Indonesian manufacturers for refusing to pay the new minimum wage, saying world retailers were unwilling to buy from "dirty sources."

The Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation, in a statement received Friday, attacked the "heavy-handed approach" of employers who are taking local authorities in Jakarta to court to try to block a rise in the wage.

The increase amounts to 38 percent in Jakarta, bringing the monthly minimum to the equivalent of 60 dollars, but bosses say the rise will drive them into bankruptcy.

Federation general secretary Neil Kearney, in a letter to the Indonesian Employers' Association, criticised what he called "poverty wages and appalling working conditions" in Indonesian manufacturing.

"Even before the new increase, many companies are already paying below the minimum wage, further damaging the reputation of Indonesian manufacturers," Kearney said in his letter. "International consumers no longer want to buy products produced by exploited labour. So if you succeed at keeping wages at poverty levels, you risk losing your best markets in US and Europe because industrialised world retailers can no longer be seen to be sourcing from dirty sources."

The rise in the minimum wage, which also applies elsewhere in the country but at different levels, took effect January 1. A court temporarily delayed its implementation in Jakarta after the bosses' association filed an objections.

The court later lifted its injunction and ordered employers to pay the increase pending a final judicial decision. Employers say they are already suffering from the global economic downturn along with rises in fuel prices and planned increases for electricity and phone calls.

Claims East Timor democracy is threatened

Melbourne Age - January 25, 2002

Jill Jolliffe, Dili -- A group of dissidents has accused the governing Fretilin party of trying to usurp democracy and remain in power for five years beyond its elected mandate.

The Group to Defend Democracy, Peace and Stability has staged a series of small but rowdy demonstrations, and says UN inaction is legitimising the Fretilin push. The latest demonstration this week outside the UN's headquarters called for early elections, less than six months after the vote of August 30 last year. "We didn't fight for this result ... We don't want an authoritarian system," said 36-year-old Lucia Lobato, an opposition Social Democrat party deputy.

The group has written to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan over their concerns, and have the public support of Bishop Carlos Belo.

At issue is article 151 of the draft constitution, the working document of the 88-seat Constituent Assembly elected by last year's vote. It allows those elected -- who in this case are overwhelmingly from Fretilin -- to perpetuate their own power for up to five years. Fretilin has confirmed that when it reaches article 151 it will set the period for the changeover from constituent to Legislative Assembly at the maximum permitted, five years from now.

Many East Timorese believed when they voted last August that the deputies they were electing had to abandon power after they approved East Timor's first democratic constitution to make way for a parliament to run the country.

Nancy Lutz, a field officer for the Carter Centre, the American human rights watchdog, said that soon after last year's poll, her organisation issued a report that was "very critical" of voter education, stating that people did not know what they were voting for.

At a press briefing last week, UN administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello said the dissidents had the option of lobbying for early elections once article 151 was passed. He said that some of the dissidents had earlier supported the idea of the Constituent Assembly transforming itself into a legislature.

Proposals call for parliamentary elections to be held with the presidential elections on April 14, or on May 30.

Timorese combat domestic violence

BBC World Service - January 22, 2002

The authorities in East Timor have launched a campaign against domestic violence, which they say is widespread in the territory.

The United Nations administrator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, said domestic violence had become a cancer in Timorese society, and should be eradicated.

Official statistics for December last year show that nearly 40% of all reported crimes were cases of domestic violence or violence against women, such as rape and sexual assault.

The authorities say that cases of political and social violence have plummeted in East Timor in the past two years, but domestic violence is still prevalent.

Hardline militias pose potential 'long-term threat': Annan

Lusa - January 23, 2002

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has alerted the Security Council to the potential threat posed to East Timor by Indonesia-based anti-independence militias and underlined the importance of resolving border disputes between Dili and Jakarta.

"Stability along the border with Indonesia is a key element for future security", Annan said in a report to the council, obtained by Lusa in New York Tuesday.

While anti-independence paramilitaries have been quiet in recent months, Annan, warned that "hard-line militias" in Indonesian West Timor could represent "a long-term threat".

In his report, Annan also said that agreement had been reached for "joint reconnaissance" of the border next month to determine "the principles and techniques" for delineating the frontier dividing Timor Island.

The Security Council will discuss the report next Wednesday with a view to extending the UN administrative mandate in East Timor through the territory4s independence, slated for May 20.

The council has already agreed to maintain a reduced, but robust, peacekeeping and civilian presence in East Timor for two years following independence.

UN turns deaf ear to disgruntled diplomat

Asia Times - January 23, 2002

Thalif Deen, United Nations -- Malaysian diplomat Nagalingam Parameswaran has expressed disappointment that the United Nations has "closed the chapter" on his allegations that the institution was racist, and that his duties as chief-of-staff at the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) had become "a white mission, an Eastern mission with a Western face".

Parameswaran also charged that the real issues detailed in his resignation letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had been underplayed, while the "racist issue" took center stage. This meant that real problems with the mission were allegedly left un-addressed.

"My letter is not fiction. I took three months to write that letter [of resignation] and I have all the statistics and facts to back it up," said Parameswaran. "In the reply I received, they told me, 'Thank you' for my involvement with the refugees and the peace process in East Timor, but [of the issues] they said that the secretary-general was concerned with several frustrating aspects of my services at UNTAET, and that was all'."

While Parameswaran expressed dismay at the fact the UN appeared to want to forget the matter, those left at the mission portrayed the former chief-of-staff as a disgruntled and frustrated employee. According to the UN Wire, UNTAET deputy head Dennis McNamara called Parameswaran's allegations "totally unbased and erroneous". McNamara was quoted as saying, "I think the criticism is intimately linked to his personal frustration, since as chief-of-staff, he never had the necessary competence to carry out his functions".

And a senior United Nations official reacted strongly late last week to charges the UN's peace-keeping mission in East Timor is dominated by white people and Westerners. "Let me tell you that I found the charges unfortunate and blown out of proportion in many ways," said Under-Secrey-General Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of UNTAET.

In his letter of resignation, the Malaysian diplomat criticized UNTAET for becoming a "white mission". Vieira de Mello noted he is a Brazilian national and that his other three senior officials were from Malaysia (until Parameswaran's resignation), New Zealand, and Thailand. Vieira de Mello released a breakdown of staff by nationality showing that, of the 107 nationalities represented on the international staff of UNTAET, 22 percent were Europeans, 21 percent were from the Americas, 21 percent from Asia, 19 percent from Africa and 17 percent from other countries, in particular Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Vieira de Mello said he had succeeded in maintaining a "geographical balance" in UNTAET. "I find it difficult to be more balanced than that," he said, adding that the mission would maintain its balance as it downsizes.

On Monday, Parameswaran downplayed the racist angle, saying the "white mission" issue had become a "smokescreen". Instead, he said, his complaints with the UN had to do with the workings of the mission itself, and likened his stint in East Timor to working in a "mafia", where nepotism allegedly ran rampant.

Last week, the New Straits Times of Kuala Lumpur quoted Parameswaran as saying, "I haven't received or heard anything from the UN. I don't think there are people [who agree with me] who would write similar letters like I did, because they are worried about their jobs. But I can [afford to do it], because I have a job to go back to." He also said that UNTAET had "internal problems" that reeked of "an intolerable" level of interference. "When you have co-equals in the chain of command, and people who have been there for a shorter period of time interfere with key policies, it becomes very difficult," he said.

With his resignation, he said, there were no high-level Asians represented in the mission. "Malaysians are the best people really to interact with the East Timorese because they know Bahasa Melayu [the Malay language]. But there are more whites in this UN mission than any other I have known of in all my years with the United Nations," he added. Parameswaran had appealed for a UN investigation of his charges. After all, he said, "Doesn't the UN uphold multiracial, multicultural and multireligious principles?"

However, Parameswaran's appeal has, according to him, yet to bear any fruit. "The irony is that, since my letter, nobody has contacted me and asked me to substantiate my claims. It makes me angrier that they seem to think it's a joke. It seems that everything just ended with the flight I took out of Dili," he told the New Straits Times. "I have told my employer that these are the problems, but the employer couldn't care less. So that means I have just wasted my time actually writing the entire letter."

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said the explanation offered by Parameswaram justifies his decision to quit his UN job., but he said he would reserve final judgement until he got more details.

Vieira de Mello said he was taken aback by some of the "extreme comments and criticisms" in the Malaysian newspapers. "I think [the comments] were over the top, they were unfortunate, and certainly did not reflect Parameswaran's own thinking."

Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel Laureate and Foreign Minister of East Timor, acknowledged Parameswaran's "hard work in East Timor" and commended him for his sensitivity towards the East Timorese people. But he refused to be dragged into what he called "public mudslinging". "It is unfair to call the UN mission in East Timor a white mission, because many people from many nationalities have worked very hard here," he said.

UNTAET was established by the UN Security Council in October 1999 to oversee the independence of the former Indonesian colony, and monitor the elections for the creation of a new state. East Timor held its UN-supervised general elections in August of last year. Vieira de Mello said that UNTAET is preparing for presidential elections scheduled for April 14 and the appointment of members to the Commission on Reception, Truth and Reconciliation.

Meanwhile, Parameswaran told the New Straits Times he looks forward to going back to work in Wisma Putra. "It's so nice to be back to normalcy, where you will be able to do your duties in a system that really works."

East Timor constitution to be approved on March 9

UNTAET Daily Briefing - January 21, 2002

Dili -- East Timor's Constituent Assembly today set 9 March as the date for completion and final approval of the nation's first Constitution.

An Assembly working commission produced a revised constitutional debate schedule over the weekend after the full Assembly voted Friday to extend its deliberations. Seventy Assembly members voted Monday in favour of the new schedule, one opposed and three abstained.

All 151-articles of the draft Constitution are expected to be approved by the end of January. The Portuguese-language document must then be translated into Tetum and distributed to various civil groups for review. The final text is scheduled to be ready by 5 March, and a formal promulgation vote and ceremony is to be held on 9 March.

Labour struggle

Malaysia deports another 22 Indonesian rioters: police

Agence France Presse - January 24, 2002

Kuala Lumpur -- Malaysia, which has temporarily halted the recruitment of Indonesian workers after a riot, Thursday deported 22 textile workers, raising to 91 the total of those sent home.

Police had detained another 22 workers Wednesday, bringing to 147 workers held after a riot by some 400 Indonesians in the central state of Negeri Sembilan last Thursday when police tried to detain 16 of their co-workers for drug abuse.

State deputy police chief Kamarulzaman Itam said the first batch of 69 Indonesians was repatriated Wednesday followed by another 22 men, all in their 20s, early Thursday. "We have already deported another 22 this morning. They are already on their way back," he told AFP. Another 56 workers were still being held for investigations, he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Wednesday said 45 Indonesians held would be charged in court for rioting and damaging public property while the rest would be deported.

A police spokesman earlier told AFP he did not rule out more arrests. "Whether we will arrest more depends on the situation, but I can tell you we are not done with our investigations," he said.

Just three days after the riot, about 70 Indonesian construction workers armed with machetes went on the rampage and damaged food stalls run by fellow Indonesians at Cyberjaya south of Kuala Lumpur. Police have since arrested 28 workers for investigation.

Abdullah on Wednesday announced Malaysia would temporarily halt the intake of Indonesian workers following the recent riots and would consider labour from Cambodia and Vietnam. "We will not be able to take the Indonesian workers now," he told a news conference.

"We don't use the word freeze but for the time being, we should also be giving places to other workers. For a long time we have been giving preference to the recruitment of Indonesian workers."

Indonesian ministers have apologised on behalf of the government for the riots and two officials have been dispatched to Malaysia to try to help solve the problem.

Malaysia is home to some 750,000 foreign workers, mainly from Indonesia, as well as hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.

International labour body raps bosses for rejecting minimum wage

Agence France Presse - January 25, 2002

Jakarta -- An international labour body has strongly criticised Indonesian manufacturers for refusing to pay the new minimum wage, saying world retailers were unwilling to buy from "dirty sources."

The Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation, in a statement received Friday, attacked the "heavy-handed approach" of employers who are taking local authorities in Jakarta to court to try to block a rise in the wage.

The increase amounts to 38 percent in Jakarta, bringing the monthly minimum to the equivalent of 60 dollars, but bosses say the rise will drive them into bankruptcy.

Federation general secretary Neil Kearney, in a letter to the Indonesian Employers' Association, criticised what he called "poverty wages and appalling working conditions" in Indonesian manufacturing.

"Even before the new increase, many companies are already paying below the minimum wage, further damaging the reputation of Indonesian manufacturers," Kearney said in his letter. "International consumers no longer want to buy products produced by exploited labour. So if you succeed at keeping wages at poverty levels, you risk losing your best markets in US and Europe because industrialised world retailers can no longer be seen to be sourcing from dirty sources."

The rise in the minimum wage, which also applies elsewhere in the country but at different levels, took effect January 1. A court temporarily delayed its implementation in Jakarta after the bosses' association filed an objections.

The court later lifted its injunction and ordered employers to pay the increase pending a final judicial decision. Employers say they are already suffering from the global economic downturn along with rises in fuel prices and planned increases for electricity and phone calls.

Two shot, three cars burnt in Purwakarta riot

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2002

Jakarta -- Mass rioting erupted when locals clashed with police in the West Java town of Purwakarta on Thursday, leaving at least two people shot and three vehicles, including two policecars, set ablaze.

The melee also left the city's Jakarta-Bandung route paralyzed for more than 12 hours as some 2,000 villagers fought with local police at around 12:30 a.m. on the main highway at Plered just outside of town.

All vehicles that arrived in Purwakarta from Bandung were forced to divert to Padalarang, before heading towards Jakarta via the Puncak route. Cars from Jakarta, meanwhile, had to take the Subang-Lembang route in order to get to Bandung. Traffic jams worsened when the remains of the burned-out cars were left smoldering on the highway.

The unrest was sparked by word of an extortion attempt against women workers returning from abroad by a minibus driver and his assistant who drove them home to Purwakarta. One of the women, named as Neneng Rochyati -- a resident from Panyindangan village in Cilalawi subdistrict, nine kilometers south from the town -- then cried for help, prompting local residents to run after the car. They finally managed to seize the two suspects and handed one of them, Sri Harno, to local police.

But later, a mob of angry people formed and demanded that the man be handed back to them; the police refused to do so, however. The agitated people then ran amok and set fire to the hired minibus and two police cars.

The police later fired shots at the crowd, wounding two people identified as Deden, 18, and Kajang, 12. The victims were being treated for gunshot wounds at the Banyu Asih General Hospital in Purwakarta on Thursday night. "Police shoot without warning -- and this takes place even after the mob retreats from their position," eyewitness Muhyidin recalled.

Deputy Purwakarta Police Chief Adj. Comr. Syamsul Bachri claimed his officers only fired rubber bullets in the incident; residents, however, contested the assertion, saying they found live ammunition on the ground.

By late afternoon, tensions still engulfed the small town as local security personnel remained on high alert amid the severe traffic jams that formed during the confrontation. Police worked hard to calm the situation, along with local community and Muslim leaders, who asked the rioting residents to clear the streets.

Syamsul added that the two suspects were in police custody in Purwakarta. He promised that the police would pay for the medical expenses of the two injured people.

Local legislators, meanwhile, slammed the police for firing on the crowd. "Such hasty shooting should be avoided -- this is the second time in the last 30 days," said Husen Naji, a member of the Purwakarta district legislative council. In addition, he claimed to have shells of some of the live bullets found at the scene.

Female migrant workers returning from overseas have in the past been targeted by extortionists, starting from their very arrival at the airport, until they return home.

The Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration has even set up a special terminal at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport for Indonesian workers departing or arriving from abroad to stop extortion by customs officials.

Such measures in the past, however, have not always been so effective.

Extortion of returning migrant workers sparks riot in Indonesia

Agence France Presse - January 25, 2002

Jakarta -- Three cars were set ablaze and a man was shot by police when a riot broke out Thursday in an Indonesian town over an attempt to extort money from returning migrant workers, officials said.

"One man was brought in with a gunshot wound to his stomach," said Jajat, a hospital employee at Purwakarta in West Java province. Jajat said he had been told the man had been shot by police who were trying to disperse a mob gathering on the main highway at Plered just outside the town.

The mob, reported to number some 2,000, had been angered by reports about an extortion attempt against returning migrant women workers in Purwakarta, the Detikcom online news service said. The women had been travelling home in a hired car. Once they reached Purwakarta, two men, including the car driver, allegedly tried to extort money from them.

The women's cries for help alerted passers-by who seized one man and handed him over to police. But a mob quickly formed and demanded that the man be handed over to them, a demand the police refused.

The mob then went amok and burnt the hired car. Police efforts to halt the violence further angered the crowd which torched two police cars, said a local police officer who declined to give his name. He told AFP the mob had been disbanded but could not confirm that a man had been wounded by police gunfire.

Returning women migrant workers have been popular prey for extortionists, starting at the airport when they come back from abroad.

Day of respite proposed for mistreated maids

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2002

Yogita Tahil Ramani, Jakarta -- Long working hours and working without a day's rest may soon be a thing of the past for Indonesia's housemaids, if campaigns demanding greater respect for their legal rights gain more ground.

The Indonesian Children's Welfare Foundation (YKAI), in cooperation with the ministries of manpower and transmigration and the state Ministry for Women's Empowerment, launched a national campaign on Wednesday aimed at raising public awareness of housemaids' rights for at least one day of rest each week.

Part of the campaign will include the distribution of pamphlets nationwide appealing to anyone employing a housemaid to allow her a day's rest. Later, the moral campaign would be regulated via ministerial decree, and possible inclusion in the Labor Law.

YKAI Executive Director Damanhuri Rosadi told the press on Wednesday that housemaids do not enjoy much legal protection and face some of the most inhumane working conditions in all of Asia.

"Hundreds of young Indonesian housemaids not only suffer verbal and physical abuse at the hands of their employers, but are also forced to work long hours without proper rest or food," Damanhuri told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

"It is not as if the laws are not there. They are there, but still, girls of between 10 and 18 years of age working as maids are sometimes forced to work 15 hours daily at a stretch, without a single holiday in a week," he said.

The rights of a household laborer to one day's rest in a week is clearly stipulated in Paragraph III, of Article 10 of the Labor Law No. 1/ 1951. This law was strengthened after Indonesia had ratified an International Labor Organization (ILO) on the same issue, which included other matters like rest on public holidays, weekly rest and taking short breaks after every four hours of work.

However, the law has hardly been enforced by any employer and the government does not push for enforcement. "Who does not need a housemaid nowadays? Still, they are treated like dirt," he added. "We need to draw the attention of all decision makers, not to make them see that the laws are there, but because of their total lack of attention working children and housemaids suffer terrible conditions."

According to a 1999 Indonesian Labor Survey, the nation is home to over 1.3 million maids, of which over 300,000 are between the ages of 10 and 18. In the past few years, Indonesian housemaids have been physically treated worse than animals by their employers over minor reasons, with some suffering irreversible physical consequences, such as blindness, severe facial burns or disfigurement.

In Jakarta, the city administration has already issued Bylaw No. 6/1993 on Housemaids. In fact, most of the capital's councillors have admitted that they know nothing about it.

Head of the data division of the city's Public Relations Office Haidil Anwar Kohar had earlier said that the bylaw had been issued following a number of instances of housemaid abuse. "Before the bylaw was issued, there had been a case where a maid had a hot iron applied to her face by her employer in Pejompongan, Central Jakarta," said Haidil. "But to date, the bylaw has never been enforced."

He said that the city administration had not enforced the bylaw as so far, as it had never received complaints from housemaids. The case that occurred in Pejompongan was handled by the police, who charged the employer under the Criminal Code Bylaw No. 6/1993 on Housemaids.

Article 2: Oversight of housemaids' welfare is the responsibility of the city governor.

Articles 3 and 4 stipulate that a domestic help agency should provide, among other things, shelter, training, skills, and mental and spiritual guidance to potential housemaids.

Article 10: The Role of Employer -- Includes obligation to pay wages, while providing food, clothes, supervision, proper shelter, good treatment, adequate rest, breaks for religious worship, and medical treatment, and to pay unemployment compensation if the maid is dismissed.

Only 32 firms file objection to minimum wage hike

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2002

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta -- The city administration revealed on Tuesday that only 32 companies, among 25,000 private firms here, have officially filed objections over the new minimum wage -- amounting to Rp 596,266 (US$60) -- due to financial problems.

No more companies were expected to file such an objection as the deadline to make the complaint was on Monday.

Head of the City Manpower Agency Ali Zubair said the 32 companies would be audited by public accountants before their objections were accepted.

"Only 32 companies so far have submitted their proposals. Most of the 25,000 companies here have paid their workers according the new minimum wage," Ali told reporters.

He said most of the 32 companies, were small- and medium-sized businesses, mostly garment and food producers, with between 50 and 1,000 employees.

Only five of the 32 companies' proposals for a grace period have been approved by their respective unions as required by the manpower regulation.

The city administration, through gubernatorial decree No. 3052/2001 decided in December to increase the monthly minimum wage to Rp 596,266 from last year's minimum wage of Rp 426,250. The decree became effective on January 1, this year.

The Indonesian Employers Association (APINDO) previously objected to the decision saying that many of its members would go bankrupt due to the financial crisis if they had to pay their workers higher wages.

Ali Zubair said the administration would soon evaluate the financial conditions of the 32 companies which filed the objections. "By the end of this month, we will announce whether their objections are legitimate or not," Ali said. He said the companies demanded a delay of between three months and one year to pay their workers based on the new minimum wage.

Separately, councillor Tubagus Sofyan Sahuri of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle asked the administration to take stern actions against companies who are financially secure but refused to obey the minimum wage decree.

"If the companies do not pay their workers despite being financially able to do that, the administration should impose sanctions on them," Tubagus who is a member of Commission E for Social Welfare Affairs, said.

However, he urged the administration to make wise choices with companies which had really suffered during the financial crisis, to avoid mass layoffs or bankruptcy.

According to data from economists, Indonesian workers have some of the lowest salaries and are some of the least productive in Asia. Because the government increased the wages, economists are urging the laborers to increase their productivity.

APINDO earlier announced that its members were only able to pay their workers Rp 540,000, instead of Rp 591,266 a month.

In a protest of the gubernatorial decision on the new wage, it filed a lawsuit with the Jakarta Administrative Court, demanding the court to annul the gubernatorial decree.

The court decided that the application of the minimum wage should be delayed pending the final decision on the lawsuit. But the court canceled that temporary injunction shortly thereafter.

Despite the lawsuit, Governor Sutiyoso insisted that the companies should obey the decree, giving them until January 21 to submit their objections, which include financial reports that prove the higher wage would seriously hurt the company.

Aceh/West Papua

Indonesia general predicts long war with Aceh separatists

Agence France Presse - January 26, 2002

Jakarta -- An Indonesian general predicted a long war against separatist rebels in Aceh despite the killing of their military leader. "This war will still be long," said Kostrad strategic reserve commander Lieutenant General Ryamizard Ryacudu, whose men shot dead Abdullah Syafii on Tuesday.

"This is not just a war about security only but other factors as well," the state Antara news agency quoted him as saying, without elaborating.

However Ryacudu said Syafii's death would have an impact on the morale of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerrillas, who have been fighting for independence since 1976, and "hopefully" dampen their fervour.

Syafii, 54, his wife and five bodyguards were killed in a 20- minute gunfight with troops at a jungle hideout in the northern district of Pidie. Ryacudu bristled at journalists' suggestions that Syafii be declared a hero, saying that in the army's eyes he was "little more than a criminal."

GAM meanwhile repeated accusations that Abdullah Puteh, governor of the energy-rich province on the north of Sumatra island, had tricked Syafii by enclosing a tracking device in an invitation to peace talks. Puteh has denied the allegations, saying his letter never even reached Syafii.

The GAM's exiled leadership in Sweden, in a statement received here Friday, said it was in possession of the letter and the microchip tracking device. "We reject the denial by Governor Abdullah Puteh that the letter he sent to Tengku Abdullah Syafii never reached his hands. The letter did arrive, we have as proof the letter and the microchip," said the statement signed by spokesman Sofyan Dawod. "Abdullah Puteh may well produce another letter and even say that the letter was never sent to Tengku Syafii."

Puteh said the invitation never made it to Syafii because the gunfight was already under way when the courier carrying the letter approached the guerrilla commander's hideout. Ryacudu also denied the use of a tracking device, telling reporters on Thursday: "We are not like US forces, installing [bugs] here and there."

Ryacudu said a regular Kostrad patrol had stumbled by chance on Syafii's hideout when it found signs that someone was using a jungle hut in the Jiem Jiem area of Pidie district, where the deadly gunfight took place.

In Friday's statement Dawod contested claims that the technology to produce a microchip was not available in Aceh. "Microchip technology is no more sophisticated than calculator technology ... it's not only American soldiers who can use it, even GAM soldiers can use that level of technology if it is needed," he said.

Analysts said Syafii's killing would have little long-lasting effect on the guerrilla struggle which has claimed an estimated 10,000 lives since 1976, and efforts for a political solution were necessary.

Jakarta last year unilaterally halted more than a year of peace talks with GAM's exiled leadership. The government has granted the province greater self-rule and a much larger share of oil and gas revenues but firmly ruled out independence.

Indonesia's Aceh rebels still want to talk peace

Reuters - January 25, 2002

Jakarta -- Separatist rebels in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province said on Friday they were still open to peace talks with Jakarta despite the shooting of its top military chiefs by security forces earlier this week.

Tengku Sofyan Dawod, a spokesman for the pro-independence Free Aceh Movement (GAM), said the death of Tengku Abdullah Syafei would not weaken the group which has been waging a guerrilla war against Jakarta's rule for decades.

"The possibility of dialogue is still open and always exists ... but the reality on the field is that more war is looming," Dawod told Reuters by telephone from the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island. "There is a deep feeling of sadness among our soldiers, but we are not weakened ... we are proud to know that our top commander has been killed by the enemy," he added.

Aceh is just one of several flash points in Indonesia, plagued in recent years by violence sparked by issues ranging from separatism to communal and religious differences.

Officials said Syafei was shot in the chest in a gun battle on Tuesday in an incident analysts have said could thwart already stumbling peace efforts. Syafei's death comes only months after Papua independence hero Theys Eluay was found dead in his overturned car after visiting an army base.

Dawod said Syafei's death could trigger more bloodshed in the staunchly Muslim province, already racked by decades of violence which has killed thousands of people, mainly civilians. "But we are not embarking on a kind of revenge mission -- that is not in our blood," Dawod said.

Several ceasefire agreements between Jakarta and Aceh have largely been ignored by both sides. GAM wants nothing less than full independence but Jakarta has ruled this out, as it battles several flash points

Earlier this month Jakarta stepped up pressure on the rebels, saying it planned to revive a military command in the resource- rich province. President Megawati Sukarnoputri, a staunch nationalist, has taken personal responsibility for resolving the conflict but activists say the re-establishment of the military command would simply make things worse.

Separatist leaders' deaths fuel suspicions

Straits Times - January 26, 2002

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- Two top separatist leaders in Indonesia's Papua and Aceh provinces have been killed in the last three months, raising suspicions that the Indonesian government is out to cripple the separatist movements by targeting their leaders, even as it promises to negotiate with them.

Tuesday's killing of Free Aceh Movement (GAM) military commander Abdullah Syafei, which followed the mysterious assassination of Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay in November, has reinforced suspicions that Jakarta's offers of reconciliation with secessionists were mere rhetoric.

Analysts doubt the killings would end bloody tension in the two resource-rich provinces, and would only raise distrust of the central government.

The Aceh rebel leader was shot dead by Army troops in a raid at his jungle base in Pidie, Aceh, while the Papuan leader was found dead in his overturned car on his way back from a visit to an army base.

Police has said its investigation showed the involvement of members of the Army's Special Command (Kopassus) in Theys's murder, but admitted it had no authority to investigate Kopassus members.

Human-rights activists said the Papuan leader's murder was part of a strategy to target local leaders. Before he died, Theys had rejected a Bill on Special Autonomy for Papua, saying the process of drafting the Bill did not involve enough local figures.

In Aceh, unidentified gunmen had killed several local intellectuals and politicians known for promoting democratic solutions to the secessionist problem there.

But Syafei's death reflected a different urgency because of its timing. The Army has said its troops stumbled upon the rebel commander and shot him during a regular tour of duty, but observers think they have intentionally killed him for political motives.

With the granting of its new special autonomy status, Aceh is set to hold province-wide elections of leaders on the regency and township levels by October.

Observers said Jakarta might see this as a potential trigger for major political tension, and it had an interest in preventing supporters of the Free Aceh Movement from running for local office. "The message of the killing is that local politicians must stick with Jakarta," said human-rights activist Munir.

The more imminent objective perhaps is the revival of a provincial military command in Aceh to tighten security grip in the province. The Army yesterday said it would set up Aceh's military command next week.

Mr Nashir Jamil of the Aceh provincial legislature said: "People here suspect that Syafei was killed to smoothen the way for the new military command." Such a military command would further erode Jakarta's credibility in Aceh, he said.

Total support for general strike

Green Left Weekly - January 23, 2002

Max Lane -- There has been almost total support in Aceh for the three-day general strike called by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for January 16-18 to protest against the decision of the Indonesian government to re-establish an Aceh Military Command.

The Aceh Military Command was dissolved during the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid. Although not influencing the actual number or nature of Indonesian military forces in Aceh, its re- establishment is seen as a signal that Jakarta is committed to a purely military solution to the growing movement for independence in Aceh.

In support of the GAM-called protest, the Acehnese Peoples Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA) announced it was establishing general strike monitoring posts throughout Aceh. FPDRA is the main campaign organisation struggling for independence for Aceh, operating openly in the urban centres. Unlike GAM, however, the FPDRA also advocates a program of fundamental social change to democratise Acehnese society in the interests of the workers and peasants.

The success of the strike may have shaken the government somewhat. An official in Jakarta has now said the plan to revive the Aceh Military Command is "still under review".

Since January 16, the streets of Aceh's main towns have been reported as quiet. GAM has called on the population to stay at home during the strike. All public transport has halted. The military has staffed some buses but there are no passengers. Schools are empty as students and teachers have stayed away from work. Most government offices are open and guarded by military but all news agencies report that few employees have reported for work.

Despite threats of a shoot-to-kill order by Brigadier General Djalil Yusuf, the commander of Indonesian military forces in Aceh, students unfurled banners supporting the strike and opposing the formation of the new military command.

FPDRA monitoring posts have reported that soldiers have marked shops that were closed with a large X sign. Some houses have also been marked this way. FPDRA posts have also reported the arrest of at least 11 students in a house near the main university.

Meanwhile, armed conflicts continue outside the main cities. Human rights organisations have documented 1700 deaths during 2001. This year, 201 deaths have already been documented. Most of these are killings of civilians by the Indonesian military.

A local police commissioner stated that on January 17, one suspected rebel was shot dead, and another captured when police raided a house in Lampu, some 12 kilometres south of the capital, Banda Aceh. In Pidie district, soldiers shot dead a suspected rebel and two soldiers were wounded in two separate clashes, according to the district military commander, Lieutenant Colonel Supartodi. In south Aceh, three civilians were found dead with gunshot wounds. According to an Agence France Presse report, residents said they believed the victims were shot during a clash between troops and rebels earlier in the day.

According to a FPDRA report, an unidentified body, also bearing a gunshot wound was found on the outskirts of Lhokseumawe, the capital of the north Aceh district. Another body was found in Peusangan, Bireun district on January 16.

Indonesian vice-president Hamzah Haz visited Aceh during the strike. He warned the Acehnese that they would never get independence. "People must not be influenced by GAM's promises to establish an independent nation of Aceh as all the wishes of the Acehnese have been met", he told a seminar in Banda Aceh.

Abdullah Syafi'ie's death proves government is not serious

Tempo - January 24, 2002

Deddy Sinaga, Jakarta -- The Commission for Missing Persons & Victims of Violence (Kontras) says the death of Tengku Abdullah Syafi'ie, the commander of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) killed in an exchange of gunfire with the Indonesian Military (TNI) this week, shows that the Indonesian government continues to prefer repressive measures for handling problems in Aceh. Kontras added that the security operations implemented in the province so far had not demonstrated a serious resolve to find a solution to these problems.

"If the government really is commited to finding a proper solution, Abdullah Syafi'ie should not have been killed, rather, he should have been brought to court," said Ori Rahman, Coordinator of Kontras, to a press gathering in Jakarta this afternoon.

Ori has accused the government of double standards in its stance towards Aceh. "On the one hand the government has been emphasizing dialog to solve all problems. Yet it continues with the violent security approach," Ori explained, at the same time acknowledging that achieving peace in Aceh would be no simple matter. Already, Muzakkir Manaf has been appointed the new commander of GAM, soon after Tengku Abdullah's death.

Regarding government plans to reopen the Iskandar Muda Military District in Aceh, Ori said that this would merely trigger military actions with uncertain consequences.

Kontras is of the opinion that the government lacks a commitment to holding genuine dialog with GAM. Abdullah Syafi'ie was killed just one day after receiving a letter from the Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh inviting him to engage in a dialog. Kontras added the government must emphasize dialog and demonstrate genuine concern for the aspirations of the Acehnese people. "The government needs to be more patient," Ori said.

Talks with GAM must be intensified: House leaders

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2002

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- To avoid more bloodshed following the killing of military commander of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) Tengku Abdullah Syafi'ie, the House of Representatives (DPR) urged the government on Thursday to intensify dialog with the insurgents and resolve the Aceh question through peaceful means.

House members, however, emphasized that secessionist movements should be dealt with by military means. "After the killing of Syafi'ie, dialog [with GAM members] is worth pursuing," said Ibrahim Ambong, chairman of House Commission I, which oversees foreign affairs and defense issues.

House Speaker Akbar Tandjung commended the Indonesian military on Thursday for killing Aceh insurgent military commander Syafe'ie, saying it (the killing) had been carried out to defend the country's sovereignty. "We congratulate the military for its tough measures against those trying to secede from Indonesia," Akbar said.

Syafi'ie, his wife Fatimah and six insurgent members, presumably Syafi'ie's guards, were killed in a shoot-out with military personnel at Cubo, Pidie regency, Aceh on Tuesday morning.

His death will likely be a serious blow to the proindependence movement, which has been under severe military pressure since President Megawati Soekarnoputri ordered a crackdown shortly after assuming office in July.

The rebel movement was launched in 1975 after years of military abuses in the region. Since then, thousands of people have been killed, including at least 1,400 last year and about 100 in the first weeks of this year.

Akbar expressed the hope that Syafi'ie's shooting would not affect efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Aceh issue.

Meanwhile, Aceh Civilian Task Force Chairman Imam Syuja' expressed regrets on Thursday over the killing of Syafi'ie, saying his death would worsen the situation in the province. "Efforts to resolve the Aceh question through dialog are now in jeopardy," Imam Syuja' told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Imam Syuja' was elected chairman of the Aceh Civilian Task Force, set up to articulate the interests of civilian Acehnese at a meeting attended by, among others, Aceh deputy governor and representatives of GAM in exile, in Washington in mid-2001.

Chairman of Aceh security monitoring team Muhammad Daim said dialog on the Aceh issue now depended on the Acehnese themselves. "If the people still want to resolve the conflict through peaceful means, namely dialog, the killing of Tengku Abdullah Syafi'ie would not hamper the dialog processes," he said.

He said his team was still trying to fathom the aspirations of the Acehnese people after Syafi'ie's shooting. "Tomorrow, we shall visit Pidie, Bireuen and North Aceh," he told the Post.

Akbar also hailed the government's move to revive the Iskandar Muda military command in Banda Aceh, the capital of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. "The revival of the Iskandar Muda military command will reinforce TNI's strength in Aceh," he said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirayuda said, after a hearing with House Commission I on Thursday, that the government would pursue peaceful solutions to the Aceh question by holding dialog with the separatists.

He said a third party could mediate the peace talks as neither Jakarta nor GAM trusted each other. "The third party, either a facilitator or mediator, could be individuals or institutions," said Hassan in Jakarta on Thursday.

According to Hassan, the next peace talks with the separatist group would be aimed at finding out if the separatists would accept special autonomy status for Aceh. He refused to specify the time or name of the government representatives at the dialog. However, he said that the government would wait initially for the reaction from the separatist group to the killing of its military commander.

Syafi'ie's murder strengthens GAM spirit 'to fight for free Aceh'

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2002

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta -- The death of Free Aceh Movement (GAM) Commander Tengku Abdullah Syafi'ie, has solidified the separatist movement and increased the guerrillas' will to fight for the independence of Aceh, says GAM spokesman Ayah Sofyan.

"One goes, ten come. The more the military kills rebels, the more Acehnese people will join GAM. Syafi'ie's murder has produced deep sympathy from a majority of Acehnese people and all this has spurred the rebels' fighting spirit," he told The Jakarta Post by telephone here on Thursday.

Ayah said, at a meeting in Pidie regency, that GAM had agreed on Wednesday to appoint GAM Deputy Commander Muzakkir Manaf as new commander to replace Syafi'ie and to begin a seven-day mourning period.

"Acehnese people and leaders, both at home and overseas, have given their full support for Manaf's appointment, as Manaf's leadership has been examined for a long time. All the field commanders are loyal to him," Ayah said.

Manaf, he said, was close to GAM's cabinet-in-exile under Tiro's leadership and had the loyalty of all GAM officials and field commanders. "Organizationally, he [Manaf] is our new leader -- or commander in Aceh -- and we also have our senior officials who are in exile and our ambassadors who are assigned in countries that recognize GAM, such as Myanmar, Malaysia and several African nations. Despite Syafi'ie's death, GAM remains solid and prepared to fight against the military and police," he said.

He added that the decision was taken after consultation with GAM officials overseas, particularly GAM founder Hasan Tiro who is currently in Sweden.

Syafi'ie's wife Aisyah Hasan and the five bodyguards who were also killed on Tuesday in a firefight with Army soldiers, were buried during a modest funeral ceremony near Syafi'ie's house in Blangsukon Cubo, Bandar Baru Subdistrict in Pidie regency on Thursday.

No GAM officials or field commanders attended the funeral due to security concerns. However, hundreds of Acehnese people paid their last respects to the commander, his wife and three guards at the funeral. The two other bodyguards were buried in their home villages in Sigli.

Asked about the February 11 deadline set by Jakarta for a solution to the Aceh issue, Ayah said GAM was ready to dialog, but not with Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh. "GAM is confused about Jakarta's inconsistent stance on the issue ... Jakarta has unilaterally halted the dialog both at home and overseas while it has deployed thousands of soldiers and Mobile Brigade personnel to kill Acehnese people. "Jakarta should make clear -- peace or war. If it chooses peace, let's go to the negotiating table to make a truce and to seek a peaceful solution to the problem, or if it adversely takes the second choice, GAM is ready for a confrontation," he said. GAM would continue its fight despite the government's decision to revive the Iskandar Muda military command after its February 11 deadline, he said.

"GAM will never die as long as Aceh still exists. The struggle has won the full support from the Acehnese people, the leaders, the local bureaucracy and the international community. The [central] government should bear in mind that more and more Acehnese civilians will be killed if the military command is revived. And this is evidenced by the killing of more than 6,000 civilians during the military operation over the last nine months," he said.

He declined to mention the total number of GAM members but said it was supported by a majority of Acehnese people who have been unfairly treated by the Indonesian government. "We will surely win the war against [Jakarta's] imperialism," he said.

Sofyan added that GAM would like to go to the negotiating table with mediation from a third party or country, because it had lost confidence in the government and security authorities.

He said the government had admitted to brutal mistreatment of Acehnese people and given many pledges of compensation -- including the massacres during the military operation between 1989 and 1998 -- but none of the pledges were fulfilled. "GAM won't fall into the government's traps, such as empty pledges or the deadline, and it will instead continue to be well prepared for a worsening situation," he said.

He warned that the special autonomy for Aceh, put into effect by the government on January 1, in addition to the military operation that had claimed thousands of lives, including Syafi'ie's, was not a solution to the Aceh issue.

Separately, Lt. Col. Supartodi, chief of the Pidie Military District, said the local military had data on Muzakkir Manaf and other GAM field commanders including their hiding places in the regency. He said security personnel would continue their operation to raid GAM's strongholds in the regency.

Killing of Aceh chief won't discourage separatists: analysts

Agence France Presse - January 24, 2002

Jakarta -- Separatist guerrillas in Aceh will press on with their 25-year-long revolt against Indonesian rule despite the killing of their military commander, Abdullah Syafii, analysts said Thursday.

"You can kill a leader but another will invariably spring up if the motivation is there, though this might take a while to establish," said Australian analyst Bob Lowry. Syafii, his wife and five other rebels were shot dead Tuesday when soldiers raided their jungle hideout.

The Swedish-exiled leadership of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) accused Indonesian authorities of tracking and killing Syafii by inserting a microchip into a envelope containing an invitation for peace talks from provincial governor Abdullah Puteh. Puteh ridiculed the claim, saying a courier had not been able to deliver the envelope.

Lowry, a former Australian soldier who has written a book on the Indonesian armed forces, said initial reports did not seem to suggest the raid had been highly planned. But he added: "It is not unusual for proposals for peace talks to be sabotaged by the military ... it's possible there was a difference of opinion between military and political leaders over the peace talks offer."

Lowry said President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government wanted to separate the rebel leadership in Aceh from the exiled top leadership in Sweden. "It's clear Megawati has been happy to see the military apply more pressure in hopes of forcing GAM to the negotiating table," he told AFP by phone. "No doubt they can beat back the armed elements of GAM but they can never wipe them out."

Lowry said the military could not solve the problem. "The character of the Aceh people is such that you can't impose a solution. The key is the Sweden-based leadership. You need to be able to bring more international pressure for a solution to bear on these people."

Jakarta has firmly ruled out independence for the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island. Last year it passed a law granting Aceh greater self-rule and a much larger share of oil and gas revenues.

Lowry said it was possible that GAM's founder Hasan di Tiro, who is in his late 70s and has lived in exile since 1979, could not be swayed in his demand for outright independence. But Indonesia should at least try for a peaceful solution and Megawati should overcome her objections to foreign involvement. The Swiss Henry Dunant Centre brokered several rounds of failed peace talks in the past.

Lowry said foreign support would only be forthcoming if Indonesia were prepared to make concessions that might persuade Tiro, such as the formation of a provincial political party that could represent GAM.

Abdurrahman Yacub, executive of the Aceh Human Rights Coalition, said Syafii's killing would only heighten violence. An estimated 10,000 people have been killed since 1976 and some 125 have died this year alone.

"We are talking here of a symbol of the struggle of the people of Aceh. His death will only redouble the determination of pro- independence people here, including the rebels," Yacub told AFP.

He noted that nine years of heightened military operations in Aceh up to August 1998 had failed to crush the rebels and merely fuelled public resentment against Jakarta. Military operations resumed last year.

Even the Aceh military operations commander, Brigadier General Jali Yusuf, said Syafii would be replaced. While the killing would have an effect on Gam's struggle, he said, "if their commander is killed, there will certainly be a deputy commander to replace him."

Yusuf called on rebels to halt their struggle. "It would better be to just surrender rather than cause further unrest. We will receive them with an open hand, but please, also bring along the weapons."

Clergymen suggest nonpartisan team on Theys' death

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2002

Jakarta -- Religious leaders in Irian Jaya have nominated a number of activists and experts to be included in the planned national commission to carry out an independent investigation into the murder of proindepedence Papua Presidium Council (PDP) Chairman Dortheys "Theys" Hiyo Eluay.

They also added that the commission should exclude the military, police and government officers to allow it to conduct an objective and thorough investigation into the case.

The religious leaders proposed two names from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), one from the National Commission on Women's Rights (Komnas Perempuan), two from the University of Indonesia and Cendrawasih University and four from legal aid institutions.

Those proposed by the religious figures were Asmara Nababan and H.S. Dillon, both from Komnas HAM, Kamala Cadhrakirana from Komnas Perempuan, Harkristuti Harkrisnow of the University of Indonesia, Ferry Kareth of Cendrawasih University, John Rumbiak of the Irian Jaya office of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM), Damianus Wakman of the Irian Jaya Legal Aid Institution, Bambang Wijoyanto of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), Johnson Panjaitan of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), a forensic expert and an expert from the Attorney General's Office.

"The independent commission must comprise independent, credible members who have expertise in conducting an investigation so that they are able of analyzing all the data and material evidence for the sake of justice and law enforcement," the religious leaders said in a joint press release here on Tuesday.

The press release made available to The Jakarta Post was signed by Priest Jack Mote, deputy bishop of Jayapura, Jan B. Rumbrar of the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI), Zubeir, chairman of the local chapter of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) and Noakh Nawipa, deputy chairman of the Christian synod in Papua on Tuesday.

The religious leaders also called on the government to appoint them, experts and a special United Nations rapporteur to supervise the commission and allow it to recruit its own assistants. They also appreciated the government's decision not to be included in the commission and made it clear that they would also appreciate it if the military and the police were also not included in the commission.

To allow the commission to conduct a thorough and objective investigation, according to them, the religious leaders called on the central government to give the independent commission the authority to summon and investigate all civilian witnesses as well as those from government offices, police and military and to gain material evidence, documents from the above institutions for the investigation.

The government has recently decided to set up a national commission to investigate the case after several teams, including the one conducted by the police, failed to reveal those behind the murder.

Irian Jaya Police Insp. Gen. Made Mangku Pastika said recently there was an indication that the military was allegedly involved in the murder but they could not conduct further investigation because the military was not under the jurisdiction of civilian law.

Theys was found dead inside his car in the village of Koya Tengah in Jayapura close to the border with Papua New Guinea on Nov. 11, 2001, a day after he was abducted by unidentified gunmen. He, along with his driver Aristoteles Masoka, were abducted only an hour after attending Heroes Day celebrations at the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) unit compound in Hammadi subdistrict, Irian Jaya. Masoka, who reported the abduction to Theys' wife, is still at large.

Papuan students and people have frequently held demonstrations in Jayapura to press the government to set up an international investigation into the case, protect human rights in Papua and review the history of the province's integration into Indonesia.

Aceh rebels say Indonesia bugged peace talks invitation

Agence France Presse - January 24, 2002

Jakarta -- Aceh separatist rebels accused Indonesian authorities of tracking their slain military commander by inserting a microchip into an invitation letter for peace talks.

The Swedish-exiled leadership of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) said in a statement the microchip was embedded in an envelope containing the invitation from Aceh provincial governor Abdullah Puteh to Abdullah Syafii.

Syafii, his wife and five other rebels were shot dead Tuesday when soldiers raided an isolated jungle hideout at Jiem Jiem in the northern district of Pidie.

"The invitation for dialogue from Abdullah Puteh is some kind of trick and means to kill," said the statement from the rebels' military spokesman in Sweden, Sofyan Dawod. Authorities could not immediately be reached for comment on the claim. Puteh said Tuesday he sent Syafii an invitation for talks via a courier.

Dawod said one of Syafii's bodyguards escaped the raid with several important documents. "After the letter was examined by [our] intelligence, something like a microchip was found in the corner of the thick envelope," he said.

The Aceh military spokesman, Zaenal Muttaqin, has said troops watched the hideout following tips from local residents that GAM members often visited it. The military said troops called on nine people seen entering the hideout to surrender but were shot at. During a 20-minute shootout seven of the rebels were killed while two escaped.

Muttaqin said troops found ammunition, a satellite handphone believed to have belonged to Syafii and a letter from a GAM "minister", Malik Mahmud, who is exiled in Sweden. The letter ordered Syafii to form a new top-level military staff, Muttaqin said.

Syafii, 54, his wife Fatimah alias Aisyah and five bodyguards were killed. The commander's body was identified Wednesday. In the statement Dawod also confirmed that Syafii's deputy commander, Muzakir Manaf, has been appointed to replace him "until further notice."

GAM had already rejected Puteh's apparent peace overture, saying it would only talk to the national leadership. Jakarta has said negotiations should be conducted at provincial level.

The intractable 25-year-old revolt has claimed an estimated 10,000 lives. In just the first three weeks of this year, 123 people -- many of them civilians -- have died in the battle for an independent Islamic state in the oil and gas-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

Jakarta has held talks in Switzerland with GAM's exiled leadership over the last few years but ceasefires have always broken down.

The government last year passed a law granting Aceh greater self-rule and a much larger share of oil and gas revenue. It also allowed the staunchly Muslim region to implement Islamic law. But rebels insist on nothing short of independence, a goal which the government has ruled out.

In a move likely to draw criticism from rights groups -- who have accused both sides of atrocities -- President Megawati Sukarnoputri has ordered the defence ministry and military chief to prepare for the revival of a separate military command for Aceh.

The plan to revive the command, disbanded in 1985, is opposed by rights activists and the people of Aceh, who said it would encourage a militaristic approach in solving problems.

Aceh guerilla leader killed in attack on HQ, says military

South China Morning Post - January 24, 2002

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- Indonesia's armed forces claimed a major victory yesterday with the killing of the commander of the Acehnese separatist rebels, Abdullah Syafei.

Troops said they shot Syafei in the chest during a raid on the jungle headquarters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). GAM has yet to confirm the killing.

Soldiers brought a body with gunshot wounds into a local hospital and "everyone says it is Abdullah Syafei", one hospital worker said.

An Acehnese activist in Jakarta said some doubt about the claim must remain until independent verification was available. He recalled an occasion on which the military claimed to have badly wounded Syafei, only for Syafei to appear in front of the press later.

Syafei's death would be a blow to the morale of the rebel movement but might not have any impact on its operational capability in the field.

GAM is not a united group. Different gangs of Acehnese gunmen control different parts of the war-strewn provinces which make up the autonomous region of Aceh, often fighting over local commodity trades as much as the desire for a separate state.

Syafei's importance lies in his high profile as the most vocal figure from the rebel force which has been fighting Indonesian soldiers for decades. He often argued that the Javanese had only replaced the Dutch as colonialists in Aceh and boldly claimed Aceh was already independent and need not heed Jakarta.

It is Syafei who has hosted many of the journalists visiting his rebel hideout, and who has overseen set-piece displays of GAM troops, especially women, and their weaponry. Frequently on television, it was not hard to know where Syafei was -- raising the question of why troops have chosen now to attack him.

One analyst suggested it may be intended to strengthen the military's argument to revive a special military command for Aceh. The Government has approved the plan but opposition to it remains intense from rights activists and international monitors.

The death toll is rising every day in Aceh, and seven others were reported killed in the Tuesday raid on the GAM base.

The armed forces are expected to use the killings as evidence of their superiority to the police in the war against the rebels. But rights activists say increased military action in Aceh will only prolong the conflict and render hollow the Government's occasional promises of peaceful dialogue.

Appeal against Army plan in Aceh falls of deaf ears

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2002

Annastashya Emmanuelle and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- Pressures mounted on Tuesday against the planned reinstatement of the military command in restive Aceh, but both the government and the House of Representatives turned a deaf ear to the outcry.

In the latest move to foil the plan, a group of human rights activists and political experts went to the House to remind both the legislative and executive branches of the loss of thousands of lives while the military operation was in effect from 1989 to 1998.

Data collected by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) revealed that during 2001 alone, 851 civilians were killed and hundreds others injured despite the current operation "to restore peace and order".

Kontras founder Munir criticized the government for ignoring the calls by Acehnese people to bring to justice those members of the military and other organizations involved in past human rights abuses.

"People have been demanding justice in Aceh, so, why does the government insist on reviving the military command?" Munir asked the 10 members of House Commission I for defense affairs.

Instead of appreciating the group's concern, the legislators prevented Munir from detailing the problematic activities resulting from the presence of the military in Aceh.

"In this session, we will talk about the plan to revive the military command. Let's focus on that matter," said Isaac Latuconsina, the Military legislator who presided over the hearing.

Rizal Sukma of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) added that he did not believe a militaristic approach would resolve the conflict in Aceh.

He said the real problem facing Indonesia currently which the military could help solve, was not related to internal threats, but other issues such as sea piracy, illegal fishing and illegal logging.

The idea to reinstate the military command was originally raised by Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh several weeks ago. At a cabinet meeting last week, the government instantly extended support to that idea.

Meanwhile, President Megawati Soekarnoputri has instructed the military chief and the defense minister to make final preparations for the reestablishment of the military command in Aceh.

The government found it necessary to reinstate the Iskandar Muda military command to combat internal threats, such as the armed separatist movement currently in Aceh, Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil said after a ministerial meeting on Tuesday.

"We decided to reestablish the Iskandar Muda military command. The President has ordered the Defense Minister and the military chief to make the necessary preparations," he said in a press conference after a political and security meeting at the office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs.

The date for the reinstatement has yet to be set, but Matori said the plan would be implemented "as soon as possible".

Matori dismissed Acehnese opposition to Iskandar Muda, saying that it is entirely the central government's authority to establish defense, law, foreign relations as well as monetary policies under the special autonomy status now in effect in Aceh.

Kusnanto Anggoro, analyst on military affairs also expressed outright rejection to the plan.

In response to earlier statements that the decision was based on Acehnese aspirations, he said that "this is not true." "I suspect a collusion involving Governor Abdullah Puteh and the Aceh provincial legislative council.

"What the Acehnese may refer to their needs of security may be different from what a military command, in the form of which we know, implies." He added that to ensure security, "I agree with the deployment of the military where necessary, but a Kodam in the form of a permanent structure is in principle wrong." The concepts of having provincial military commands "are against principles of a democratic country."

Soldiers kill woman in Papua province, activist says

Agence France Presse - January 22, 2002

Jakarta -- Indonesian soldiers shot dead a woman in a dispute at a logging company in the easternmost province of Papua, a rights activist said Tuesday.

Members of the Kopassus special forces assigned to guard the logging firm opened fire during a dispute Monday with a local man, identified as Martinus Maware, at the company's office, Albert Rumbekwan of the Elsham human rights group said.

Maware was shot in the leg and rushed to hospital. A treasurer of the company, Lesi Iba, was shot in the mouth and died on the spot, Rumbekwan told The incident happened at Bongko, some 130 kilometers west of the provincial capital Jayapura. Rumbekwan had no information on the cause of the dispute at the office of PT Wapoga Mutiara Timber.

He said that so far police had not begun any inquiry. A policeman on duty in Jayapura said no report of the incident had been received.

Armed separatists have been active in the Bongko area. Rebels killed five Kopassus members in the area in January 2001, causing the deployment of more troops there. Several civilians subsequently went missing or were found dead in the area.

Rumbekwan said security forces were restricting movements in the area with even local inhabitants needing passes. He said some 1,000 people from the area had fled to Jayapura in the last few months of last year.

A sporadic low-level armed struggle for independence began after the Dutch ceded control of the territory to Indonesia in 1963. The province was renamed Papua this month under an autonomy law designed to lessen pressure for independence.

Muslim infiltrators 'training Papuan militia'

Sydney Morning Herald - January 22, 2002

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- A militant Muslim group blamed for killing hundreds of Christians in the Maluku islands has infiltrated the Indonesian province of Papua, where its fighters are training pro-Jakarta militia, human rights activists claim.

The group, Laskar Jihad, had sent more than 100 of its armed fighters into the Papua district of Fak Fak, and was operating military training camps there, said a spokesman for the human rights group ELSHAM, based in the Papuan capital, Jayapura.

Indonesian authorities in Fak Fak were backing the training that Laskar Jihad fighters had been giving members of the East Merah Putih (Red and White) militia, the group said.

ELSHAM said yesterday that one of its activists who worked for the Government in Fak Fak and his family had been repeatedly threatened with death after he told police about a Laskar Jihad training camp that police raided last month. Explosives, hand- made weapons and poisonous arrows had been confiscated, ELSHAM said.

A Papuan police spokesman in Jayapura confirmed yesterday that two or three people would appear in court on charges relating to the raid.

Laskar Jihad, originally based in Java, is Indonesia's largest and most violent Muslim group. It has sent hundreds, if not thousands, of fighters to the Malukus over the past two years to join a jihad against Christians. More than 5000 people have been killed in the conflict.

United States intelligence officials have been quoted as saying Laskar Jihad is linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorists. The Afghanistan-trained Laskar Jihad leader, Jafar Umar Thalib, denies any link with al-Qaeda. He says that last year he turned down an offer of financial backing and an alliance from a bin Laden aide.

A spokesman for Laskar Jihad in Jakarta yesterday denied the group had a presence in Fak Fak.

The Papuan police spokesman said that several weeks ago a man who had arrived in the town of Sorong from the Malukus had been arrested carrying 10 bombs. Police have not linked the man to the Laskar Jihad.

Indonesia is coming under increasing pressure to crack down on militant Muslim groups because US and Asian diplomats say there is growing evidence of al-Qaeda cells active in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Intelligence officials in Singapore say the leadership of Jemaah Islamiah, a group accused of targeting US interests and the Australian embassy in Singapore, is based in the Indonesian city of Solo.

But Indonesian police have said they lack the evidence to charge the outspoken Jemaah Islamiah leader, Abu Bakar Bashir.

Meanwhile, the commander of Indonesia's Kopassus special forces, Major-General Amirul Isnaeni, has challenged police statements that evidence points to the involvement of Kopassus soldiers in the assassination of Papua's flamboyant independence leader, Theys Eluay. Mr Eluay was found dead in his car on November 11 after attending a Kopassus function in Jayapura.

Prosecutors seek jail term for Papua pro-independence leaders

Agence France Presse - January 21, 2002

Jakarta -- Prosecutors at a court in Jayapura, the capital of Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua, on Monday sought 30- month jail sentences for each of three pro-independence leaders accused of subversion, one of the defendants said.

Prosecutors at two separate trials at the Abepura district court in Jayapura sought the penalties for three leaders of the Papua Presidium -- Reverend Herman Awom, Thaha al-Hamid and Don Flassy, Awom told AFP.

"The prosecutor asked two-and-a-half years' jail for me and Thaha and the same sentence too for Don Flassy who is tried separately," Awom said, adding that the time they had spent in detention would be deducted from the sentence if applied.

The three defendants have been accused of subversion for advocating an independent state in Papua. Al-Hamid is the general secretary of the presidium while Flassy and Awom are members.

Awom said that the trial would resume on February 4 to hear the defence plea. The three are on trial following a congress organized by the presidium, which demanded that Jakarta recognize the sovereignty of West Papua that was declared in 1961.

Irian Jaya fell under Indonesian control in 1963 after the territory's Dutch colonisers departed in 1961. The United Nations recognized Indonesia's sovereignty over Irian Jaya in 1969 following a UN-held plebiscite but pro-independence groups, including the presidium, say it was flawed.

The head of the presidium, Theys Hiyo Eluay, was also accused of the same charges but was found murdered on November 11, after he had been kidnapped the previous day. Police investigations into the case have yet to produce results.

GAM weakened but far from crushed: Army

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2002

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan -- Maj. Gen. I Gde Purnawa, chief of Bukit Barisan Military Command overseeing Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra admitted on Monday that the security authorities were having difficulties crushing the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in restive Aceh because, in addition to the province's large size, the separatist movement was backed by the local bureaucracy, politicians and students.

He said that following the security operation underway since last April, tension in the province had gradually calmed down, while the separatist movement had weakened and its rebels were no longer able to move about so freely.

Purnawa made the statement when accompanying Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah and Governor of North Sumatra T. Rizal Nurdin to see off the departure of the first group of local Muslims making a pilgrimage to Mecca at Polonia Airport here on Monday.

He said GAM only possessed psychological strength, especially in intimidating the Acehnese people. This could be seen in its recent call for a total strike to protest the planned revival of the Iskandar Muda Military Command, which was dissolved in 1986.

"The call for a strike was not fully supported by the people of Aceh. This is evidence that locals are afraid of the rebels but do not support their struggle," he said.

Purnawa hailed the establishment of vigilantes or civilian security forces in Singkil, Southeast Aceh and Central Aceh to counter the separatist movement.

"We consider the presence of such vigilantes positive and security authorities will back them up," he said, adding that the Indonesian Military had deployed 20,000 personnel in the ongoing operation in the province.

Asked to comment on the planned revival of the military command, Purnawa said it was aimed at maintaining security in the province and not to suppress civil society.

"It's time for Aceh to make its own political, legal and security decisions," he said, without elaborating. He said that under a military command filled with Acehnese personnel, the security authorities would be able to monitor and reach even the remotest parts of the province.

Violence in restive Aceh claims two more deaths

Agence France Presse - January 22, 2002

Banda Aceh -- Two more people have been killed in Indonesia's restive province of Aceh where separatists have been fighting for an independent state since the 1970s, the military and an activist said Tuesday.

A suspected member of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) was shot dead by troops on patrol at Nurussalam in East Aceh on Monday, said an Aceh military spokesman, Major Zaenal Muttaqin.

The man was killed after eight rebels ambushed a motorcycle patrol of eight soldiers in the area, Muttaqin said, adding that a handgun had been found on the body.

The local GAM Spokesman, Ishak Daud, denied the victim was a rebel fighter and said that according to reports he had received he was a civilian driver.

The body of an unidentified man with a gunshot wound in his chest was found at Keude Bieng 10 kilometers south of Banda Aceh on Monday, a humanitarian activist said.

Violence involving government and rebel forces in Aceh left some 1,700 people dead last year. The two latest deaths bring the known death toll for the first three weeks of this year to 123.

Jakarta last year granted the resource-rich province at the northernmost tip of Sumatra island greater self-rule and a larger share of oil and gas revenues in an effort to reduce separatist sentiment.

It also allowed the province to implement Islamic law but ruled out independence as the GAM demands.

Amnesty International activists to visit West Papua

Agence France Presse - January 19, 2002

Jakarta -- A three-member Amnesty International team is headed for the remote Indonesian province of Papua to carry out human rights work and investigate alleged rights violations, a rights group in the province said Saturday.

One of the mission's main aims was to "monitor the latest development in the murder case of Mr. Theys Hiyo Eluay," said Alo Renwarin of the Institute for Advocacy and Human Rights (Elsham).

The three -- Amnesty's Asia Pacific program director Gerry Fox, Lucia Withers and Signe Poulsen -- are scheduled to arrive in the capital of Jayapura on Sunday for a 14-day visit to the province, formerly known as Irian Jaya, Renwarin told AFP.

Pro-independence leader Eluay was found dead on November 11 after being abducted the previous evening by an unidentified group as he drove home from a Heroes' Day celebration hosted by a Kopassus special army unit in Jayapura.

The local police chief and others have said there are indications -- but no evidence -- that some members of the Kopassus unit may have had a role in the murder.

Activists have called for an independent inquiry, saying police investigations are going too slowly. The army chief of staff, General Endriartono Sutarto, has vowed not to protect any officers implicated in Eluay's murder.

Eluay's driver, who escaped and reported the abduction by what he called non-Papuan people, has since disappeared.

After questioning at least seven Kopassus members over the killing, police have admitted they have hit a dead end in their inquiries.

The London-based rights group decided to visit Papua because it had "extensive information about recent human rights violations such as arbitrary killings and torture" in the province, Renwarin said.

The group had also notified provincial and central government officials about their trip. "They had sent official letters to the foreign affairs and defence ministries as well as to the attorney general's office, the national police and Papua provincial leaders," he said.

The three rights workers would also investigate rights violations allegedly carried out by the separatist Free Papua Movement rebel group.

A sporadic low-level armed struggle for independence began after the Dutch ceded control of the territory to Indonesia in 1963. The province was renamed Papua this month under an autonomy law designed to lessen pressure for independence.

Five more killed in latest Aceh violence

Agence France Presse - January 21, 2002

Banda Aceh -- At least five people including a marine and two suspected separatist rebels have been killed in the latest violence in the restive Indonesian province of Aceh, the military and residents said Monday.

A marine died in hospital in Medan in the neighbouring province of North Sumatra on Sunday from injuries suffered from a grenade blast during a clash at Lhoknibong in East Aceh on Wednesday, said Aceh military spokesman Major Zaenal Muttaqin.

Another military spokesman, Major Ertoto said troops shot dead two suspected rebels in a plantation area in the West Aceh district of Darul Makmur on Sunday. The troops also arrested three other suspected rebels and confiscated two home-made handguns after the clash, Ertoto added.

Two civilians were shot dead and two others were wounded by gunshots during a search by troops for rebels at Kluet Utara in South Aceh on Sunday, residents said. The two were believed to have been killed by soldiers' random shots, they said. Military spokesmen could not immediately confirm the report.

More than 1,700 people died in 2001 and 121 have already been killed this year in the resource-rich province at the northern tip of Sumatra island.

Jakarta last year granted Aceh greater self-rule and a larger share of oil and gas revenues. It also allowed the province to implement Islamic law but ruled out independence as the Free Aceh Movement demands.

Corporate globalisation

Poor hit by new price rises

Green Left Weekly - January 23, 2002

Max Lane -- There have been student demonstrations, involving hundreds of students, in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Makassar, Denpasar and Jogjakarta against the fuel price increases announced by the Indonesian government on January 16.

In the city of Makassar, there were clashes with the police after students hijacked a state oil company tanker. President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government has raised petrol prices by 6.9% and kerosene prices by a massive 50%. This will have a devastating effect on the standard of living of Indonesia's 200 million poor workers and peasants. Kerosene stoves are still used by the big majority of the population, not just for cooking but for the necessary boiling of drinking water.

The price increases flow from a decision by the government to reduce subsidies for all energy products. Electricity prices are also scheduled to rise soon. The International Monetary Fund has demanded Jakarta reduce fuel subsidies as a means of lowering budget expenditures thereby making it more feasible for the government to meet its obligations to pay outstanding interest on old loans.

The IMF has also pressed the government to decrease regulation of the rice market. This has meant both lowering tariffs on imported rice as well as reducing the role of the Logistics Agency in managing rice distribution to the markets. As a result, there has been dumping of cheap rice on the market, undercutting local rice and therefore discouraging local production.

Cultivation of rice land decreased 10% during 2001 and rice harvests have also been down as a result of farmers using less fertiliser. Fertiliser prices have also doubled since 1999 just as rice prices have been squeezed.

At the same time, because there is no longer centralised management of rice distribution, rice from different provinces which are harvested at different times has not been made available to areas where there has been no harvest. As a result, there rice prices in the latter areas have jumped between 30% and 100%.

The uncertainty in the price of rice has promoted hoarding by traders. In the rice bowl of Java, people now queue for cheap overseas rice distributed as part of a "rice for the poor" program. The distribution of this rice, however, takes the form of a lottery as "rice for the poor" trucks visit different neighbourhood areas. The Logistics Agency has also stated that its current rice stocks are insufficient to meet future demand.

Protests continue over price hikes

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2002

Jakarta -- Protests have continued in several cities across the archipelago against the soaring price of staple foods and other commodities, spurred by the recent 22 percent increase in fuel prices.

Hundreds of fishermen demonstrated at the Mataram district legislature in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) on Tuesday, urging the government to pay attention to their economic plight following the fuel price rises.

The demonstrators, including mothers and their children, complained that the increases in commodity prices had made them suffer further.

"We are forced sometimes to eat corn and cassava because the price of rice has risen," Midah, a 36-year-old resident, who joined the demonstrators from the town of Ampenan in NTB, said.

The protesters also accused certain local individuals or officials as being responsible for the dwindling government relief allocated to them.

They said most of the rice and financial assistance, aimed at helping address the economic problems of poor people in the province, had missed its target.

The demonstrators were fishermen who usually sailed using boats hired from local rich people.

Farid, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) leader who accompanied the protesting fishermen, suspected that most of the rice and financial assistance was not delivered properly to the poor. The use of the reduced relief was also not clear, he added.

Farid, head of the Institute for Empowerment of People in Coastal Areas, said the local government had promised to provide between 15 kilograms (kg) and 20 kg of rice to each fishing family in Ampenan. Apart from that, they would also have received boats worth at least Rp 2.5 million each.

But in reality, he said, every fisherman's family only got five kg of rice, along with a vessel that, he claimed, was not seaworthy. "According to local fishermen, the boats are estimated each to cost less than Rp 1 million. So where has the remaining Rp 1.5 million gone?" Farid questioned.

In a response to the protest, head of Central Ampenan village H. Cholid said the relief had been channeled properly to the targets, but admitted that the assistance would be delivered gradually due to the poor financial state of the local administration.

In the West Java town of Indramayu, thousands of commuters were stranded on the street as drivers went on strike from last Thursday to oppose the fuel price increases. The strike by at least 120 drivers of city minivans won support from local NGOs and student groups.

In an effort to tackle the problem, the Indramayu administration deployed buses and trucks to carry stranded passengers to their workplaces.

The striking drivers said the increased price of gasoline and diesel fuel had raised their operational costs, while many passengers were reluctant to pay more that the established bus fares.

"We are going on strike to protest the government's decision to raise fuel prices without taking into account the fate of low- income people," said Sapiudin, a bus driver plying the Indramayu to Cirebon route.

A similar strike was also staged by drivers in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, where fuel price rises have caused the price of staple foods and other basic commodities to soar since Thursday.

Despite the strike, many other drivers have unilaterally charged their passengers fares higher than those already set.

In several traditional markets and shopping malls across Makassar, rice was sold at Rp 70,000 per sack, from Rp 62,500 before the fuel prices were increased on Wednesday. The price of cheap rice provided by the local logistics office also rose from Rp 2,100 per kg to Rp 2,500.

Meanwhile, cooking oil, which used to cost Rp 3,500 to Rp 3,750 per liter, is now sold at Rp 4,000. The price of other basic commodities like eggs, wheat and vegetables has also soared. Traders said the increases took into account the increase in fuel prices.

Fuel protests continue as rise in phone charges announced

Agence France Presse - January 22, 2002

Jakarta -- The Indonesian government Tuesday announced plans to raise telephone charges as protests continued over last week's stiff increase in fuel prices. Phone charges will rise by 15 percent from the end of January, said Transportation and Communications Minister Agum Gumelar.

Gumelar, quoted by the state Antara news agency, admitted that the rise would be unpopular but said it was necessary to attract foreign investors to expand the national network.

The state telecommunications company PT Telkom was only able to install 150,000 new telephone lines last year, far from the government target of two million to three million lines by 2004.

Last week the government announced an average 22 percent rise in fuel prices in an effort to cut its huge subsidy bill, sparking several street protests.

About 200 women carrying cooking pans, ladles and other kitchenware protested in Bandung in West Java on Tuesday, saying the fuel price rise would further burden the millions of poor.

The members of the Muslim Women's Forum for the Poor said increases in fuel prices and electricity and telephone rates needed to be gradual.

Jakarta has tried to cushion the effect of the fuel rise by earmarking 2.85 trillion rupiah (273.64 million dollars) in various benefits. The oil subsidy for this year is budgeted to cost the government 30.377 trillion rupiah (2.95 billion dollars) against 53.774 trillion in 2001.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is coordinating a five-billion-dollar aid package for Indonesia, has demanded a cut in the fuel subsidies.

Some 300 members of a radical Muslim group on Tuesday staged a protest outside the US embassy against the fuel price rises.

The protesters, from the Front for the Defenders of Islam, urged the government to sever relations with the US and the IMF. "Prices soar because the government abide by the wishes of the IMF and the US," read one of their posters. Indonesia's 1997/98 financial crisis pushed millions more people into poverty, with real wages often failing to keep up with inflation since then. The central bank has forecast inflation at 9.0-10.0 percent this year.

Radical Muslim group blames price increases on IMF and US

Agence France Presse - January 22, 2002

Jakarta -- Some 300 members of a radical Muslim group on Tuesday staged a protest outside the US embassy, accusing the United States and the IMF of aggravating the Indonesian economic crisis.

The protesters, from the Front for the Defenders of Islam, urged the government to sever relations with the US and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is coordinating a five- billion dollar loan program to bail out Indonesia's economy.

"Prices soar because the government abide by the wishes of the IMF and the US," read one of their posters. "The IMF worsens the economy," another said.

The Front also criticised the US war in Afghanistan in retaliation for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, describing it as a "Crusade against Islam".

The government last week raised fuel prices by an average 22 percent. It said the move was aimed at easing the budget burden created by subsidies and curbing the smuggling of fuel out of the country. The IMF has urged the government to cut back on subsidies, including on fuel.

The tightly-guarded embassy was the scene of near-daily protests late last year, before and after the United States launched attacks in Afghanistan. But the protests had died out in recent months.

Indonesia's subsidies powderkeg

Asia Times - January 22, 2002

Bill Guerin, Jakarta -- Fuel subsidies cost the Indonesian government 16 percent of its overalll expenditures in 2001. A total of US$5.3 billion (53.774 trillion rupiah) went down the drain. A large part of the money was siphoned off into the pockets of those who for ages here have manipulated a system that subsidizes the relatively well-off classes in the community rather than lower-income groups. The substantial price difference between domestic prices and those in neighboring countries has cost Indonesia dearly.

This year, as part of a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), subsidies will be cut almost in half to 30.377 trillion rupiah, roughly 8 percent of the state's total budget. And since keeping the lid on a potentially explosive social conflict should be a major priority of an administration that governs a country so adversely affected by crisis, President Megawati Sukarnoputri does seem to be demonstrating nerves of steel. She gave the green light for last Wednesday's fuel price hike to both industrial and public users. In spite of last October's average increase of 12 percent, petrol was increased by a further 15 percent, diesel by 9 percent, and the crucial minyak tanah (kerosene), widely used for cooking and lighting poorer homes, soared by 50 percent -- 6 cents per liter for domestic and small businesses, and double that for industrial purposes.

Meanwhile, the price of diesel for public transport and industry went up to 1,150 rupiah per liter from 900. With the other fuel increases and the recent 15 percent hike in electricity and telephone rates, this price hike will add to the burden on the poor, the jobless, and the underprivileged.

A special agency, empowered to intervene and re-introduce subsidies in specific instances, is tasked with monitoring market prices and their effect on the community. However, these new prices, except for household kerosene, apply only until the end of February. Thereafter, state energy company Pertamina will promulgate a new price list at the beginning of each month.

This is in line with Article 28 of the recent oil and gas law that stipulates that fuel and gas prices be open to fair and healthy market competition.

The new monthly prices may rise or fall in line with the Mid Oil Platt Singapore (MOPS) price. Premium petrol is now at the equivalent of the MOPS price, and the prices of automotive diesel, industrial diesel, fuel oil, and kerosene have been set at 75 percent of the respective MOPS level. Domestic kerosene is now at 75 percent of international levels while petrol, at the new level of 1,550 rupiah (15 cents a liter), compares with the average price in the US of around 30 cents a liter (but still less than a third of the price in Europe).

Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Professor Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, forecasts healthy growth this year fired by the agriculture sector because of the subsidy cuts. However, he didn't explain where sector support would come from in the budget straitjacket. The cost of the subsidies, albeit reduced, means less capability for subsidizing the labor-intensive agriculture sector, the nation's prime asset. Fuel-subsidy savings have long been meant to develop infrastructure in villages and urban slums through rural financing institutions that then relay the money as revolving credit to small businesses.

Subsidies will be gradually lifted until prices at the pump reach global market levels by the year 2005, when, says the professor, the government will be able to raise development funds. But if he had taken just a short straw poll outside his office, he would have seen that many Indonesians can hardly believe that the day may come when they pay the world market price for fuel.

As far back as 1997 when the Suharto administration approached the IMF with a bailout plea, all future loans were granted on the condition that the government reduce subsidies. The gradual lifting of fuel subsidies was, from then on, cast in stone in the frequently revamped "Letters of Intent" signed with the IMF, which promised Jakarta $5 billion in financial aid.

The IMF stance is that subsidy cuts will also help increase competitiveness in the industrial sector, as indiscriminate support prevents companies from having to improve efficiency and cut costs in order to compete. There is no mention of the poor, except for this week's glib acknowledgement by IMF spokesman David Hawley that "It is widely recognized in Indonesia that fuel subsidies are poorly targeted and do not primarily benefit the poor."

Perhaps there really is no going back, whatever the cost and the dangers. On June 16 of last year, parliament finally approved the package that was written into the IMF's "Letter of Intent" two months later, when the government committed to raising fuel prices for non-industrial users by just over 30 percent. By contrast, Abdurrahman Wahid's administration had it much easier, as decision time for them coincided with high global oil prices and revenues were buffered by an extra $350 million per year in oil exports for every dollar increase in the price of oil. An OPEC member, Indonesia contributes 6 percent of the world's oil supply, and enjoyed a windfall of billions of desperately needed dollars following OPEC's agreement three years ago to hold down production. Conversely, of course, Wahid's government had to shell out even more to maintain the subsidies when the oil price rose. But there is no such windfall now -- international fuel prices have been hovering at rates below the $22 a barrel assumed in the state budget.

The students are on the march again over the subsidy cuts. Across Indonesia, they have been on the streets in the last two days. The common theme on banners and in speeches is that, "Instead of reducing the subsidy, the government should make serious efforts to combat corruption, collusion and nepotism, to save money". They could have added smugglers to the list of criminals they want sorted out. Fraudulent practices are widespread from the permanent leaks seen in traffic queues in Jakarta when jerricans of fuel are filled from tankers with the driver's knowledge, to the massive fraud perpetrated by those who re-export the subsidized fuel, mainly to Singapore and Malaysia.

Forged documents are a way of life in Indonesia, and the smuggling of paraffin and diesel out of the country commands massive profits, which can easily cover the expense of paying off officials or others who could jeopardize the theft industry. Foreign flagged tankers are detained, caught in the act of illegally transporting the subsidized fuel out of Indonesia, part of the estimated total of 7 kiloliters carried by these vessels. Even a small ship load (500 tons) of diesel costs Rp6 trillion in revenue losses.

The protesters say the government's reasons for the price increases are not "proportionate" to the huge salaries, allowances, and free use of state facilities enjoyed by so many of the political elite. The student body as a whole wants Megawati to "confiscate the many ill-gotten gains of big-time corrupt politicians and others via private and public entities before resorting to raising fuel prices".

Fuel subsidies have long been an explosive and politically sensitive issue and these street protests will raise the stakes in the political arena, where the ex-ruling party Golkar is already lining up a war of attrition against Megawati and her majority PDI Party over the impending doom facing Akbar Tanjung, the Golkar leader. These widespread, almost permanent, economic and political crises have become mutually reinforcing, producing a downward spiral of instability, rising poverty and unrest and highlighting underlying social tensions previously obscured by the relative economic stability enjoyed under Suharto.

The World Bank estimates that at least 30 million Indonesians live below the poverty line. The National Family Planning Coordinating Board breaks this down to around 14.7 million poor families to be supported and aided, but the government, trying to cushion the burden on the poor by earmarking 2.85 trillion rupiah for various benefits, says its "rice for the poor" program, for example, will only reach around 9.79 million needy people this year.

Drastically reduced employment prospects for university graduates and high school dropouts have resulted in increased disillusionment with the government. With the fastest growing inflation rate in Asia, prices increased by more than 12 percent last year. As a result, the government is going to have to tackle the problem of the poor head on.

One of the main reasons former president Suharto quit when he did was because of the social unrest sparked by fuel price hike protests. The higher fuel prices were to be implemented by January 1, and the two-week postponement allowed the fuel black market even more opportunity to flourish. This sparked off widespread shortages because of hoarding. Wahid deferred fuel price hikes twice, and in doing so also brought on multiple inflation surges in the months preceding the planned hike.

The Alliance for New Indonesia, a group of widely respected economic and political analysts, warned last week of a possible "social revolution" if the government failed to immediately address the searing issues gripping the country. Its chairman, Sjahri, said that "Aside from the fuel black market, other black markets are the black market of justice and the black market of power politics."

The huge specter of unemployment continues to cast a giant shadow over the social fabric and the "rich get richer and poorer get poorer" reality of life in Indonesia, along with perceptions that no one cares about the poor and underprivileged. These factors are all building up a head of steam in a pot that will seriously threaten stability.

'War on terrorism'

Horta confident Indonesia will crack down on terror

Associated Press - January 25, 2002

Singapore -- East Timor's Nobel Peace Prize-winning foreign minister said Friday he was confident Indonesia would be able to crack down on suspected members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Jose Ramos-Horta, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in East Timor's bloody struggle for independence from Indonesia, said radical Muslims operating in Indonesia could destabilize the region.

"It is not in Indonesia's interest in any shape or form to have these extremists, radical, Muslim fanatics operating in Indonesia," Ramos-Horta told The Associated Press. "Indonesia always knew how to fight unwanted elements," he said. "When they decide to do so, I know no al-Qaida will survive in Indonesia."

Indonesia was brutal in its struggle to keep East Timor, which voted to split away in 1999 after a 24-year military occupation. Up to 200,000 people -- a quarter of East Timor's population -- died in the guerrilla war.

Ramos-Horta met Friday with his Singaporean counterpart, Shanmugam Jayakumar. While Singapore and Malaysia have arrested dozens of people for allegedly plotting to blow up US embassies and businesses in the region, Indonesia has been accused of dragging its feet.

US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has said the Bush administration wanted to resume military assistance to Jakarta but was restricted by a congressional ban imposed after the Indonesian army devastated East Timor in 1999.

Ramos-Horta said he believed the Indonesian army needed "more sophisticated counter-intelligence training" but not more US military assistance.

Heat on Jakarta to crush bin Laden followers

Sydney Morning Herald - January 26, 2002

Mark Baker in Manila and Lindsay Murdoch in Jakarta -- The Indonesian Government is under mounting pressure to crack down on the fundamentalist Jemaah Islamiah movement after new evidence linking it to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and terrorist raids across South-East Asia.

Authorities in the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia believe that members of the movement -- led by the cleric Abu Bakar Bashir and backed by al-Qaeda chiefs -- were responsible for a foiled plot to attack Western targets in Singapore, including the Australian High Commission.

Bashir, who is being questioned by Indonesian police after Singapore and Malaysia demanded his arrest, has denied involvement in terrorism but has expressed sympathy for bin Laden and al-Qaeda. After a police interview on Thursday, he lauded bin Laden as "a true Islamic warrior" who had shown the courage and skill to fight the United States.

Philippines intelligence officials believe the foiled Singapore attacks were planned by an Indonesian activist, Fathur Rohman al Ghozi, who was arrested in Manila last week. They say al Ghozi is a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which bombed a Manila railway station in 2000, killing 22 people. He has also been linked to bombings in Indonesia.

The director of the Philippines National Police Intelligence Group, Chief Superintendent Robert Delfin, says of al Ghozi: "He is the missing link between the Philippines terrorist group and the Singapore group. He is a key figure."

Singapore authorities say the planned attacks on Western targets were confirmed by a surveillance videotape found in the wreckage of an al-Qaeda leader's house in Afghanistan in December.

Since the arrest of al Ghozi, Philippines authorities have also detained four alleged Filipino accomplices and seized weapons and explosives from a house rented by him. They say the explosives were to be smuggled to Singapore via Indonesia. However, Indonesia has so far been reluctant to vigorously investigate links between Bashir and al-Qaeda.

Bashir told journalists that even after four hours of questioning in Jakarta, police had not asked him whether he was connected to al-Qaeda. On Thursday, the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, said claims of links between al-Qaeda and local Muslim elements were still "indicative".

Indonesia 'allowed five Osama men to slip out'

Associated Press - January 25, 2002

Jakarta -- Five suspected members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network arrived in Indonesia from Yemen last July with a plan to blow up the United States Embassy in Jakarta, a high-ranking US official has revealed. But Indonesian authorities balked at taking action, allowing the men to slip out of the country after they realised they had been discovered, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

US diplomats surmised that the authorities had intentionally scared the team away so as not to have to confront them. The incident, which was not made public earlier, highlighted the ambivalent attitude of Indonesia's government and military towards foreign and domestic Islamic radicals who reportedly assisted the Al-Qaeda team.

It also illustrated the difficulties the United States may face if it extends its war against Al-Qaeda and related terrorist groups to South-east Asia, where close cooperation with friendly governments and security forces would be essential for success.

In Washington, another US official confirmed that an Al-Qaeda plot to detonate a truck bomb at the US Embassy in Jakarta around July or August of 2001 was disrupted.

Indonesia's Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declined to comment on the allegations on Wednesday, but said law enforcement agencies were monitoring potential terrorists. Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said he had not received reports of the alleged plot.

In August, the presence of the suspected terrorists caused a partial closure of the US Embassy in Jakarta, although diplomats refused to identify the threat at the time. A hand-drawn sketch of the building allegedly in their possession "fit the pattern" of attacks on US missions in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the US official said.

But Indonesian authorities "took so much time to establish a wiretap, then brought in the local police and created so much noise", that this alerted the terrorists and local collaborators and gave them time to flee, he said.

The five men, who arrived from Yemen, had based themselves at a religious institution run by Arab Indonesians in eastern Java, the official said. The eastern city of Surabaya is home to tens of thousands of people of Arab descent. Most are immigrants from Yemen who maintain close ties to their homeland. The US became a target of terrorism in Yemen with the October 2000 suicide bombing attack on the destroyer Cole, which killed 17 sailors. That attack was blamed on the Al-Qaeda network.

FPIS stages protest against US policy on terrorism

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2002

Jakarta -- Some 500 activists of the Surakarta-based Islam Defenders Front (FPIS) staged a rally in front of the US Embassy on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan in Central Jakarta on Tuesday morning, protesting the US policy on fighting terrorism.

Arriving in six buses, the protesters demonstrated in front of the embassy compound. El-Shinta reported. They accused the US government of having singled out the Islamic world in its campaign against terrorism.

The US government has repeatedly denied the accusation, saying that it was not fighting Islam, but terrorists who happened to be Muslims. The embassy was tightly guarded and a police line was in force along the front of the embassy.

After staging the protest for 25 minutes, the protesters then left the embassy.

As of going to press, the protesters were staging a similar protest at the House of Representatives/People's Consultative Assembly compound, which is also in Central Jakarta.

Government & politics

New party launched in Indonesia

Agence France Presse - January 20, 2002

Jakarta -- A faction from Indonesia's Muslim United Development Party (PPP) announced it was breaking away Sunday to form a new political group.

The PPP-Reform was declared in brief ceremony at an upmarket hotel in South Jakarta with the party's declaration read out by one of the founders, Zainal Maarif.

The PPP, Indonesia's third largest party, is currently chaired by Hamzah Haz who is also the nation's vice president. Haz's term as chairman of PPP ends in 2003.

Popular Muslim preacher Zainuddin MZ, who has been a staunch supporter of the move to set up the new party, was present at the launch. Zainuddin was one of 17 signatories of the new party, The split between the two camps within PPP had been made final following a national party work meeting in October which decided to hold the next party general congress in 2004. Zainuddin's faction maintain that the decision violated the party's constitution and that the congress should be held in 2003, a year before general election year.

Haz's faction maintains that the party needed to consolidate to prepare for the 2004 elections and therefore a party congress, which would result in a new leadership, would weaken it.

The declaration of the new party had earlier been scheduled for January 27 but had been brought for to Sunday without any reason given.

Corruption/collusion/nepotism

Sutiyoso violates ministerial decree

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2002

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta -- As a governor, Sutiyoso should abide by the law. Ironically, he has long violated a ministerial decree that bans him from holding the post of commissioner at the city- owned market operator, PD Pasar Jaya.

Sutiyoso has occupied the position since his installment as the city governor in October 1999. Such a thing was common during Soeharto's regime, when top government officials automatically became commissioners in state-owned firms.

But late in the year, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued decree No. 50/1999 to ban a governor or a deputy governor from becoming a commissioner in state companies, according to deputy chairman of City Council Commission B for economic affairs Dani Anwar.

"The governor has, up till now, received a salary from PD Pasar Jaya," Dani of the Justice Party told reporters. According Bylaw No. 3/1999 on PD Pasar Jaya, a commissioner receives a monthly salary amounting to 40 percent of the president's. However, it is not clear exactly how large their salaries are.

According to the Audit Commission on State Officials' Wealth (KPKPN), Sutiyoso's wealth amounted to Rp 15 billion, making him the richest governor in Indonesia.

The councillors found that Sutiyoso was still PD Pasar Jaya's commissioner during a two-day meeting with the market's officials at city-owned resort Wisma Jaya in the Puncak, Bogor, West Java, last week.

At that time, they questioned the low contribution of the market to the city's income. Last year, the market's income was Rp 150 billion (US$15 million) but only Rp 3 billion of this went into the city's coffers. This year the market was only targeted to contribute Rp 1.4 billion.

It has long been known that the market has become a cash cow for certain city officials and councillors. It is also reported that several councillors have often asked to be "allocated" shop units in the shopping centers operated by the market firm.

The firm operates dozens of traditional markets and shopping centers, including the country's largest textile market at Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.

Commission B repeatedly asked the governor to replace the market's executives but he never responded seriously. "We will invite the market's executives to explain their financial situation," councillor Dani said.

Separately, deputy governor for financial affairs Fauzi Alvie Yasin said the governor would soon resign as the market's commissioner. "Probably, it will happen next month. It was almost overlooked as we have many other things as high priorities," Fauzi told reporters.

He admitted that the market firm was the worst for corruption and collusion among city-owned companies due to its large number of employees. He revealed that some 60 percent of the employees, who reportedly amounted to 6,000 people, would be moved to the market firm's subsidiaries. "So we are not simply toppling the top executives of the market firm due to its bad performance," Fauzi said.

Lawmakers reluctant to question Golkar chief over Bulog scam

Straits Times - January 24, 2002

Jakarta -- Only 49 of 500 Indonesian legislators showed up on time for a plenary meeting to debate the setting up of an inquiry team to investigate Golkar chairman Akbar Tanjung, clearly demon-strating their reluctance to investigate his alleged role in a financial scandal involving 40 billion rupiah (S$7.1 million).

The poor showing on Monday prompted House Deputy Speaker Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno, of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), to delay the plenary meeting for 30 minutes. When the meeting re-opened, only 254 legislators were around, barely enough for a quorum of 250, or half of the total 500 legislators.

Speaking on behalf of the 50 legislators who filed the petition to set up an inquiry team, Ms Tari Siwi Utami of the National Awakening Party said that an inquiry committee was needed to unravel the alleged misappropriation of 40 billion rupiah from the State Logistics Agency's (Bulog) funds.

Former Bulog chief Rahardi Ramelan, the prime suspect in the 54.6-billion-rupiah scandal, alleged that the Golkar chairman received 40 billion rupiah from the funds. The Golkar leader admitted "receiving" the funds, but insisted that the funds were directly channeled to a little-known foundation.

Meanwhile, a noted Muslim scholar suggested that Mr Akbar delay his plan to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca. Mr Masdar Farid Mas'udi, chairman of the Nadhlatul Ulama's Association for Muslim Boarding Schools and Community Development, said the Golkar chairman's insistence on going would only create a bad precedent for the law enforcement drive in the country.

Mr Akbar had wanted to go on the pilgrimage, which he said had been planned long before he was implicated in the case. He had been named a suspect two weeks ago in the high-profile scam. His going to Mecca is seen as using the religious card to manipulate investigations.

Mr Masdar said Mr Akbar's move would only encourage people to look for loopholes in the legal system in the future.

Mega celebrates birthday with orphans and homeless

Straits Times - January 24, 2002

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- President Megawati Sukarnoputri yesterday celebrated her 55th birthday with hundreds of orphans and homeless children in a modest gathering at her party headquarters in an apparent bid to offset criticism over her husband's lavish birthday bash in the resort island of Bali recently.

She showed up at the party held at the backyard of the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) headquarters in Central Jakarta yesterday afternoon after chairing a Cabinet meeting.

She was greeted by about 300 children from the nearby slum areas who sang birthday songs. A group of young street singers, who earn money at traffic lights, performed at the party.

The children urged her to be committed to wiping out corruption, collusion and nepotism, the Antara news agency reported. The function was attended by party leaders and some prominent figures, though her husband Taufik Kiemas was not present.

Ms Megawati's party was a sharp contrast to her husband's 59th birthday at a lavish party held at the summer palace in Tampaksiring, Bali. Detikcom online news service reported earlier this month that the President's 44-member entourage flew to Bali aboard a presidential plane, a move which drew criticism as only a few days earlier she had appealed to people to lead a modest lifestyle.

Ms Megawati, who took over from ousted president Abdurrahman Wahid last July, has been under fire for poor performance in lifting the country out of the multiple crises. Many regret her recent decision to raise fuel prices that caused prices of basic goods to soar. The government is also planning to raise power and telephone rates.

Critics slam her government's plans to ease the repayment terms of debts owed by ex-bankers to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (Ibra) as it favours tycoons who had misused the state money. Under the plan, bank owners can extend the repayment period of their debts to 10 years from four years.

Furthermore, the President has also been criticised for the little progress made by her government in fighting graft. Since she came to power, no graft case prosecuted by her government has been brought to court.

Her party's indecisive stance on a financial scandal allegedly involving Parliament Speaker Akbar Tandjung raised suspicions that she was compromising for the sake of her political survival.

Ms Megawati's rise to power in the late 1990s was due to the strong grassroots support she had received in the final years of president Suharto's authoritarian regime. Now, analysts are concerned that her government is not doing enough to help the poor who had expected her to bring changes to the country.

The Suara Pembaruan Daily said yesterday: "Many people want Megawati to be closer to them, they want her to talk more to them to express what they really want and to hear what she really has to say to them."

Supporters rally in Jakarta to back party boss suspected of graft

Agence France Presse - January 22, 2002

Jakarta -- Supporters of an Indonesian party chief suspected of corruption have massed in the capital Jakarta to show solidarity with him, a party spokesman said Tuesday.

They have travelled from Aceh province to Jakarta to protest a possible move by the attorney general's office to bar parliament Speaker Akbar Tanjung from leaving the country to perform the Muslim Haj pilgrimage in Mecca, said Suwito, spokesman for the Golkar party.

The attorney general's office is investigating Tanjung over accusations he embezzled 40 billion rupiah (3.8 million dollars) in state funds intended for the poor at the height of an economic crisis in 1999.

Tanjung is the chairman of Indonesia's second largest and former ruling party, Golkar.

"According to the delegation of Golkar's Aceh branch, 40,000 Acehnese are ready to defend Mr Akbar," Suwito told AFP.

"They don't see any reason why the attorney general should prevent him from travelling to Mecca to perform the haj. He certainly won't run away," he said.

Suwito said only some of the reported 40,000 were already in Jakarta and staying at cheap hostels. He could not give an estimate of the number who had arrived. "But they will not stage any rallies or engage in anarchic acts," he said.

Tanjung has denied the corruption charges, saying he channelled the money to an Islamic charity foundation to deliver food to poor villages in Java. The attorney general's office says there is no evidence food was ever delivered.

There are suspicions that the funds were used to bankroll Golkar's campaign in the 1999 general election. The funds were released under then president BJ Habibie when Tanjung served as State Secretary.

Tanjung acknowledged Tuesday that thousands of Acehnese wanted to express moral support for him. "That is their expression of solidarity for me," he was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying.

The attorney general's office will decide on Wednesday whether to allow Tanjung to travel to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage, its spokesman Mulyoharjo said. Tanjung said he would abide by whatever decision was made.

Akbar inquiry is not first priority, legislators say

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2002

A'an Suryana and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- After giving a tepid response to the setting up of an inquiry team to investigate House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, legislators said on Tuesday that they were not in a hurry to decide on the issue.

Legislators interviewed by The Jakarta Post on Tuesday said that Akbar's case was not a priority as there were still too many bills and other "urgent" agenda items the House of Representatives (DPR) had to deal with immediately.

"We have no idea when the 10 factions will present their final stance on the issue and it all depends on the priority the House will take," said Julius Bobo of the 153-strong Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Ironically, Julius was one of the 50 legislators who filed the petition to set up an inquiry team to investigate Akbar's alleged involvement in the case in which he has been declared a suspect by the Attorney General's Office.

Compared with the treatment the same legislators gave to corruption allegations against former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, the legislators's response to Akbar's corruption charge is somewhat half-hearted.

Legislators needed only six weeks to determine the inquiry team to investigate Gus Dur. The petition was filed on July 13, 2000 and by August 30, legislators had unanimously agreed to establish a pansus (special investigation committee) into Gus Dur.

In Akbar's case, on the other hand, the petition was submitted on October 23, 2001 and, three months later, the legislators are still wondering if they will establish an inquiry team to investigate the Golkar chairman.

Gus Dur was accused of misappropriating Rp 35 billion in funds of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) but never declared a suspect, while Akbar is charged with receiving Rp 40 billion of Bulog funds and has been declared a suspect by the Attorney General's Office.

Julius declared that the whole process on Tuesday was "nothing abnormal," emphasizing that the final decision would be made by legislators collectively.

Commenting on the drastic change, legislator Effendi Choirie of the National Awakening Party (PKB) simply said that anything could happen in politics.

A House steering committee is to convene on Thursday to decide when the 10 factions in the House will hold a plenary session to decide if they will form an inquiry team. "However, it all depends on the lobbying by political parties at Thursday's meeting of the steering committee," he said.

Fellow legislator from the Reform faction Imam Addaruqutni said on Tuesday that his faction would scrutinize the progress of negotiations between PDI Perjuangan and Golkar, the second- largest faction with 120 members.

The 41-seat Reform faction is one of those opposing the establishment of an inquiry committee in the House.

In the meantime, Golkar deputy chairman Slamet Effendy Yusuf claimed on Tuesday that lobbying by his party to foil the establishment of the inquiry committee had so far achieved satisfactory results. "There are some positive points, including the case of Akbar Tandjung," he told the Post.

Slamet acknowledged that his party had lobbied other parties, including PDI Perjuangan. The initial lobbying took place at Regent Hotel two weeks ago, but so far there was no follow up yet. "There is nothing wrong with lobbying, since indeed, the function of political parties is to lobby," he said.

Slamet reiterated that the need for an inquiry team was no longer relevant. "Recommending that Akbar be prosecuted through legal channels will be the final result of the inquiry committee. Today, we have seen that Akbar is being prosecuted through legal channels, so the committee is no longer necessary.

In the meantime, Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa of Golkar added that House Commission II would on Wednesday hear an explanation from Attorney General M.A. Rachman on progress in the legal processing of Akbar.

'Elite conspire to preserve corruption'

Jakarta Post - January 21, 2002

A'an Suryana and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- Political observers lashed out on Saturday at what they saw as a conspiracy to save House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, a suspect in a Rp 40 billion scandal involving the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), from facing the music, saying the move would severely erode public confidence and support in any future anticorruption initiatives.

"The move to drop the House investigation against Akbar proves that our legislators focus only on their own immediate and short-term interests," senior researcher J. Kristiadi, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

"If politicians fail to put this case on the right track, public trust in the government and politicians will vanish, and this will be bad for the country's efforts to eradicate corruption," he added.

Kristiadi was asked to comment on statements made by major parties in the House of Representatives on Friday that there was no urgent need to establish a House investigation committee to look into alleged corruption by Akbar, who is also the chairman of Golkar, the second biggest faction, with 120 members in the House.

The statements come just three days before the House is scheduled to hold a plenary session on Monday to decide whether or not it will set up an investigation team to question Akbar. However, virtually all the major parties in the House said on Friday that Akbar's case should be resolved through legal channels only, and that a House inquiry was no longer needed, after Akbar had been charged as a suspect by the Attorney General's Office.

Their statements constitute an about-face as most factions, including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which is chaired by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, had earlier agreed to set up an inquiry team to investigate Akbar.

PDI Perjuangan Secretary General Sutjipto said during his visit to Cairo that his party would thwart any attempt to set up a committee of inquiry. PDI Perjuangan's apparent about face was still in question as Sutjipto's remark was denied by deputy secretary of the PDI Perjuangan faction Firman Jaya Daeli who said that Sutjipto's statement did not represent the stance of his party.

"The statement should not be seen as our official position. The different opinions only reflect the maturity of our party," Firman told the Post here on Sunday. Firman, one of the 50 legislators who support a committee of inquiry, said that it is still possible for PDI Perjuangan to change its stance. He said the official position of his faction would depend on two aspects. The quality of the ongoing legal proceedings against Akbar by the Attorney General's Office, and the explanation to be presented by the legislators on Monday. "We will continue to endorse the proposal to set up an inquiry team if the explanation is reasonable and relevant," Firman added.

Meanwhile, Arbi Sanit, a lecturer at the State University of Indonesia, said that if the about face was true, it was the result of "pork barrel politics". "By dropping the plan for the House to investigate Akbar, members of the elite are not only saving Akbar but also themselves as they have also received money from Bulog," Arbi said.

A Golkar executive had said earlier that only two parties had not received Bulog money, namely the left-wing People's Democratic Party (PRD) and the Muslim-based Justice Party (PK). Arbi said Akbar could have blackmailed Megawati during their recent meeting by threatening to disclose that her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and other big parties had also received money from Bulog if the PDI Perjuangan pressed ahead with the establishment of a House inquiry team.

PDI Perjuangan is the biggest faction in the House with 153 members. Arbi said that the public had hoped the elite would become role models and be front-runners in the country's drive to combat corruption. "However, this expectation has faded away since the elite are turning around to protect a person who was strongly suspected of being involved in corruption," he said. According to Kristiadi, the establishment of a committee of inquiry was important to show the public that the political elite could be held accountable before the people for all of their actions. Kristiadi said that the setting up of a House inquiry team could benefit Golkar. "By establishing an inquiry team, Akbar could prove that he is innocent. But, he and his party have rejected the move, raising public suspicions that there is some fire behind the smoke," he said. "A political leader must be held accountable for all of his actions as he is elected by the public," he said, adding that accountability was essential to democracy.

Arbi said that Akbar must not only be subjected to a legal process, but also a political process. "That would distinguish him from the man in the street," he added.

Lobbying likely to pay off for Speaker accused of graft

South China Morning Post - January 21, 2002

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- The fate of one of Indonesia's most powerful political figures, Akbar Tandjung, is being weighed today as a plenary session of the House of Representatives focuses on whether to set up a committee to probe his alleged corruption.

It sounds daunting for Mr Akbar, the House Speaker and head of the Golkar party who was nurtured by former president Suharto's political machine. Mr Akbar is already under investigation by the Attorney-General's office for allegedly embezzling 40 billion rupiah (HK$32 million) in state funds, directing it to support Golkar's election campaign in 1999. He denies it all, saying the money went to help feed and clothe the poor.

The largest party in parliament, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) led by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, has sought to burnish its own anti-corruption credentials by insisting Mr Akbar must be investigated. If he was found guilty by either the Attorney-General's office, or by a special parliamentary committee, his political career could be considered over.

More significantly, the Golkar party he leads could be barred from contesting the next elections in 2004, thereby heralding its demise as a major political force after its more than three decades of often brutal dominance.

But Mr Akbar need not worry, conclude a variety of political observers, as weeks of expensive persuasion pay off.

"Our legislators have so aggressively lobbied other party representatives and leaders ... the results have been satisfactory," the deputy secretary of the House's Golkar party faction, Yahya Zaini, said. "It's a guarantee that no House team will be established." Under a headline, "Big parties determined to save Akbar", the Jakarta Post reported that the PDI-P is backing off the parliamentary investigation idea.

As predicted by analysts when the Attorney-General's probe began, that legal process is being used now to obviate any need for a political probe.

For Mr Akbar, as for any wealthy member of the ancien regime of the Suharto era, legal probes are nothing to fear given the deep graft within the judiciary. Politicians need only fear themselves, namely the parliamentary free-for-all which so successfully toppled president Abdurrahman Wahid, on similar corruption charges.

PDI-P secretary-general Soetjipto said on Friday that his party would thwart any move to set up an inquiry team to investigate Mr Akbar: "The legal process is the appropriate way for resolving Akbar's case. That is why PDI Perjuangan [PDI-P] is of the opinion that a House inquiry team is better off being avoided." Just in case more MPs need time to change their mind in favour of saving Mr Akbar, today's talks may not be final.

"The longer our discussions go on, the higher the price we can charge to agree to anything," said one.

Local & community issues

Council wastes public's money on meeting in resort hotel

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2002

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta -- City councillors are again spending millions of rupiah of public money by conducting a two-day meeting with city officials at the Horison Hotel in North Jakarta to discuss the proposed 2002 budget. At least 15 councillors grouped under the council's special budgetary team and dozens of city officials attended the meeting which started on Wednesday.

Chairman of the council's commission D for development affairs Sayogo Hendrosubroto claimed that the meeting was arranged by the city administration. "I preferred a meeting at the council building actually. The memo announcing the meeting reached my desk only yesterday," Sayogo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said.

However, Sayogo's claim did not have much credence in light of the fact that the meeting had been arranged long before and several rooms at the hotel were booked well in advance. A receptionist with the hotel said the councillors and officials were provided with suites priced between Rp 1.1 million (US$110) and Rp 3.3 million per night.

Separately, City Council Spokesman Muhayat admitted that the meeting was financed by the city administration, not the city council. "We just booked a meeting hall and two rooms for the secretariat. It's not much, " Muhayat told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. Last year, they also held a similar budget meeting in the Horison, which is partly owned by the city administration. Last week, all of the city's 85 councillors and hundreds of city officials organized a two-day budget meeting, which reportedly cost Rp 1.5 billion, at the city-owned resort Wisma Jaya Raya in Puncak, Bogor.

The Puncak meeting, which ended without producing any decisions last week, also wasted money since most of rooms provided for the participants were not used, as most of the participants preferred to go home rather than stay at the resort. Besides the rooms, meals which were provided by the resort were also wasted since most of the participants had their lunch at restaurants outside the resort. The Puncak meeting was considered ineffective due to the number of participants. It was then continued at the council building in Jakarta.

The city officials are believed to be using the Horison meeting as a way of securing the councillors' approval on their proposed budget, which amounts to Rp 8.9 trillion.

During the meetings in Puncak and the council building, the councillors threatened to cut some fund allocations in the budget, which they said seem redundant and could be siphoned off by corrupt officials.

Lampung's draft budget under fire

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2002

Oyos Saroso HN, Bandarlampung -- Activists and the Lampung provincial legislative council clashed on Wednesday after the activists said the province's 2002 draft budget allocated more for the bureaucracy that it did for the poor.

The discussion turned into serious bickering when a number of activists lambasted the council, accusing a number of legislators of colluding with Governor Oemarsono to give a bigger portion of the budget to the bureaucracy and local officials.

Legislative council deputy chairman Mochtar Hasan stormed out of the meeting after 300 students and activists representing 36 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) condemned both the provincial administration and the legislative council.

The students and activists were received by a number of legislators, including Mochtar Hasan, after they staged a demonstration at the legislative compound, demanding major changes to the draft budget.

The demonstrators threatened to occupy the legislative building unless their demands were met. "Both the local administration and the legislative council have no sense of crisis. The governor has proposed to allocate 70 percent of more than Rp 450 billion of the draft budget to finance the bureaucracy and local officials while some of the people have turned to tiwul [a cassava-based food] instead of rice because of the soaring prices of basic commodities," Imam, a student demonstrator, said.

Rice prices have risen to Rp 3,700 per kilogram from Rp 1,500. Ahmad Julden Erwin, spokesman for the NGOs, questioned the provincial administration's development policy as it had only allocated 30 percent of the budget to development programs.

Erwin also criticized the legislators' high take-home pay, saying it was not feasible to receive such high amounts when the legislature did not function optimally. "Of course, a legislator's gross salary is only Rp 4 million per month but, with numerous allowances, he or she will receive a total of Rp 24 million per month," he said.

Idhan Djanuawardana, coordinator of the Center for Development Studies, called on the legislature to cut its budget, allowances and facilities provided for the governor. "The governor has received too many allowances and facilities that reflects a life-style which is too far above local people's living conditions," he said.

The demonstrators said they would keep returning to the legislature compound until the legislative council made changes to the budget.

Abdul Hakim, Muzakir Noor, both of the Crescent Star Party faction, and Raden Muhammad Ismail of the Indonesian democratic Party of Struggle pledged to listen to the demonstrators' demands during the deliberation of the draft budget.

Villagers abandon kerosene, turn to firewood

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2002

Agus Maryono, Purwokerto -- The soaring prices of basic commodities caused by fuel price increases have forced people to try to reduce their expenses. Villagers in several parts of Central Java have gone back to using firewood for cooking in place of kerosene.

"Rather than spending Rp 1,300 for a liter of kerosene which can only be used for a day, it's better to use firewood. One bundle can be used for three days," said Sumirah, a resident at Sikampuh village in Kroya subdistrict, Cilacap regency.

She is one of thousands of poor villagers in Central Java, who have complained about the soaring price of kerosene. Kerosene was sold for Rp 1,300 per liter in nearby outlets, although the official price is only Rp 600 per liter. In some remote areas, it even rose to Rp 1,400 a liter.

"I don't know why this has happened. The country led by President Megawati Soekarnoputri is said to have prospered, but all the prices of basic commodities have risen," Sumirah added.

A similar grievance was also voiced by Pak Kumis, a 50-year-old trader of chicken noodles on the campus of the state-run Soedirman University in Purwokerto.

He even vowed not to vote for any party in the 2004 general elections, arguing that all the political groups had only made lofty promises and lied to their constituents.

Megawati's government announced last week an average 22 percent increase in fuel prices, effective from January 16. Under the new policy, the price of kerosene was set at Rp 600 per liter, up from Rp 550.

The increase was aimed at gradually reducing the government's fuel subsidy, which has been a huge burden on the state budget.

The amount of the former fuel subsidy would instead be allocated for relief programs for the needy. The government plans to allocate Rp 2.8 trillion for the poor across the country this year. However, local authorities in the provinces and regencies are unclear as to how to deliver the aid.

Critics have said the increases have only made people from lower income groups suffer even more amid the country's prolonged economic crisis.

Concrete efforts by the government to improve the daily income of people were also not clear. The government has even admitted that it is powerless to prevent the prices of basic commodities from rising following the increase in fuel prices.

Housewives in the Central Java towns of Banyumas, Purwokerto and Cilacap have begun to abandon kerosene and are switching to firewood for cooking.

Despite firewood being readily available, its price has also increased due to the rising demand for the commodity amid the shortage of kerosene. One bundle of firewood, which used to cost only Rp 1,200, is now sold at Rp 1,500.

However, compared to kerosene, firewood is much more economical. For each of the families in the villages, one liter of kerosene is enough only for one day, while one bundle of firewood lasts for at least three days.

Apart from it being more economical, the price of kerosene is not stable and is likely to further increase in Central Java. Kerosene is sold for Rp 775 per liter at its depots, while street vendors set prices ranging from Rp 1,200 to Rp 1,400 per liter.

"We buy it [kerosene] from the depots at a high price, so we sell it also at a higher price. Why should we have to lose?" said Sulistiyanto, a kerosene vendor in Bojongsari village in Kembaran subdistrict, Banyumas.

M. Rofik Widadi, head of the economic division at the Banyumas administration, said the shortage of kerosene was due to the lack of supply from state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina.

He cited as an example that Banyumas, which has around 1 million consumers, needs a daily supply of at least 240 kiloliters of kerosene, but Pertamina has provided only 160 kiloliters since last year.

"That's why it's not surprising that kerosene is hard to find here now. But we proposed to the government that Pertamina increase the supply two weeks ago, but there has been no response yet," he said.

Sugiat, a 43-year-old kerosene agent in Purbalingga regency, confirmed that the stock was limited. "Usually we receive a supply of around 1,000 liters per day, but recently, we get 1,000 liters twice a week." However, Pertamina officials and oil and gas businessmen have denied the decrease in kerosene supplies in the province. They instead blamed the shortages on the move by certain dealers to hoard the fuel to profit from the price increase.

Gugur Martono, head of Pertamina's local marketing division in Cilacap, said the additional supply of kerosene would not address the persistent shortages across Central Java.

Angry mob burns three alleged street thugs to death

Agence France Presse - January 20, 2002

Jakarta -- An angry mob in Indonesia's West Java town of Tasikmalaya took justice in their own hands and burned to death three street thugs who had been allegedly extorting money from local transport operators, a report said Sunday.

The three had arrived in a car with another man and had been demanding "security money" from local bus and public transport operators on Saturday when a mob of dozens of people formed and chased them, the Pikiran Rakyat newspaper said.

Three were caught and beaten up. Apparently unsatisfied with merely beating them up, the mob threw kerosene on the three men and set them and their car on fire. The fourth man escaped but was later caught by the police, the daily said.

Police have not yet arrested anyone over the deaths but have launched an investigation into the incident, the daily said.

Human rights/law

End game in East Timor

Jakarta Post Editorial - January 25, 2002

Even though it has been almost two and a half years since an eruption of violence in East Timor, not a single Indonesian military and police officer responsible for security in the territory at that time has been prosecuted. While it is up to a court of law to determine whether they were responsible for neglect, or worse as widely alleged, for promoting or fanning the violence preceding and following the UN-sponsored self- determination ballot in August 1999, there is no doubt that Indonesia owes the international community some credible explanation. All the more reason now that East Timor has become an independent state, albeit under UN administration.

An impartial court of law, preferably in Indonesia, would be the best place to conduct such a hearing. But, unless Indonesia lives up to its responsibility as a member of the international community, an international tribunal hearing for these officers will be the most appropriate alternative. That was certainly the warning that came from the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, Leandro Despuoy, during his visit to Indonesia this week.

Successive administrations since 1999 -- from presidents B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid to Megawati Soekarnoputri -- for some reason used various tactics to delay the prosecutions. But the world has waited long enough, and there is no way Indonesia can hope to escape from this international obligation forever. Is this waiting game about to end anytime soon? Hardly.

Earlier this month, President Megawati appointed judges to preside over the new ad hoc human rights courts, which will deal with the 1999 East Timor mayhem, among other things. But without domestic and foreign pressures, the proceedings will likely take a long time. Any conviction, one way or the other, is likely to remain a very long way away, if it ever reaches that stage.

With Despuoy's visit and the warning of an international tribunal, this is a good time to review the whole situation and to ask ourselves whether these delaying tactics have served the nation's interests. The administration's relentless efforts to shield a handful of military and police officers from legal prosecution has not been without its costs to the rest of the nation.

The US Congress has severed all military cooperation programs with Indonesia, including training, and imposed an embargo on sales of military hardware in response to the 1999 violence in East Timor. The European Union also momentarily imposed a similar embargo. For better or for worse, these embargoes have compromised the ability of our defense forces in dealing with the various armed conflicts.

The heaviest cost that the East Timor debacle is exacting on Indonesia, though, is on its international reputation and image. This incident hurt the entire nation, and not just the military.

The 1999 mayhem itself has already raised doubts about the ability of Indonesia, as a state, to protect lives and property of people under its charge. Indonesia's failure to prosecute the military and police officers has now raised doubts about its ability, again as a state, to uphold the law and deliver justice.

It is no wonder that more and more people around the world see Indonesia as a pariah state. If this image continues, more and more investors and tourists will shun Indonesia.

The tragic aspect of all this is that it did not have to be this way at all. All it takes is strong political will from the Megawati administration to send military and police officers in charge of East Timor's security in 1999 to court. How difficult can that be? They are already assisted by highly paid lawyers, so their rights to a fair hearing should be secured. If they were innocent, then let them prove their case in court.

Clearly, it is in the best interest of this nation to accelerate the entire legal process. These delays should come to an end, for our own good. We need to put the East Timor nightmare behind us, once and for all, and quickly, and restore our reputation and credibility among the international community. Most of all, we need to get on with our lives.

Human rights court - tough battle ahead

Tempo Magazine - January 22-28, 2002

The president has recently appointed eighteen ad hoc Human Rights judges. Can Indonesia's Court of Human Rights function objectively and independently from the International Court of Justice? Indonesia is endeavoring to improve its human rights record. Last week, President Megawati Sukarnoputri appointed 18 adhoc Human Rights judges to preside over cases involving crimes against humanity. Twelve of the judges were appointed to the court of first instance. The other six were appointed to the court of appeal. The panel of ad hoc judges comprises practicing judges and professors from various national universities.

This panel will shortly be officially inaugurated and assigned to positions at the Central Jakarta District Court. Each judge will receive a basic monthly salary of Rp1 million (US$100 at Rp10,000 to the US dollar) and Rp4.5 million (US$450) for each case they preside over. Hotel and transportation costs whilst in Jakarta for judges originating from the provinces will be borne by the government.

In February, the panel of ad hoc Human Rights judges will preside over its first case-the post-referendum crimes against humanity committed in East Timor in 1999. Following this, the panel will hear the human rights abuses committed in Tanjungpriok, North Jakarta in 1984. Unfortunately, no investigations have previously been conducted into either the Tanjungpriok case or the East Timor case. Both may be classified as crimes of genocide.

The appointment of the panel of 18 ad hoc Human Rights judges is not free from controversy. Although many people are hopeful that the appointment of the judges will improve Indonesia's international image by illustrating its commitment to uphold human rights, many people are critical of the development.

Legal practitioner and human rights advocate T. Mulya Lubis says that the selection of ad hoc judges was premature. According to Mulya, "there are many holes". For example, one of the appointed ad hoc judges, Hendra Nurtjahyo, is only 33 years old. The Law on the Indonesian Court of Human Rights of 2000 stipulates that the minimum age of prospective ad hoc judges is 45. Hendra, a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Indonesia (UI) has since resigned from his posting.

Bambang Widjojanto, former chairman of Indonesian Legal Aid, expressed similar criticism. According to him, the rushed appointment of the panel of ad hoc judges made it difficult for the selection committee to inspect their resumes. Bambang also claims that "[the judges] training as prospective ad hoc judges was very short".

Todung Mulya Lubis has pointed out another issue of contention. According to Mulya, ad hoc judge Rudi M. Rizki from the University of Padjadjaran in Bandung, had previously worked under the former defense minister and military commander-in-chief, Gen, Wiranto. Wiranto has been linked to the post-referendum crimes against humanity committed in East Timor in 1999. In fact, many of the human rights cases tried by the panel of ad hoc judges will involve Indonesian Military officers. "Rudi Rizki could be biased when presiding over the East Timor human rights abuse case," suggests Mulya.

Several other ad hoc judges may also find it difficult to remain objective. One such judge, Binsar Gultom, is currently posted at the Bogor District Court. Formerly, Binsar was posted at the Dili District Court and Manatuto District Court in East Timor.

Binsar Gultom and other judges posted in East Timor undoubtedly have different political approaches than the Indonesian government. In view of this, Bonar Tigor Naispospos from the Solidarity for East Timorese People (Solidamor) has requested that Binsar be dropped from presiding over the East Timor case.

Another judge to have been criticized is appeal court ad hoc judge, I Gede Gusti Sukarata. According to Solidamor, Sukarata has a smeared record concerning human rights enforcement. Sukarata formerly ruled in favor of former Indonesian Democratic Party Chairman Soerjadi, facing a lawsuit from victims of the PDI riots in July 27, 1996. "Clearly, he is not beyond powerful intervention," says Bonar.

However, chairman of the selection team for ad hoc Human Rights judges from the Supreme Court, Benjamin Mangkoedilaga, rejects the above criticisms as premature. According to Mangkoedilaga, such criticism deems the panel of ad hoc judges incompetent, even before they commence their duties.

For Benjamin, the most important factor in bringing crimes against human rights to trial is the district attorney's charges. If the district attorney's indictment is complete and penetrating, the judge will surely find it difficult to conspire with the defendant. The Court of Human Rights will be open to the public, so judicial decisions are open to public scrutiny.

The above issues are technical. What about the ability and courage of ad hoc judges to take action on crimes against humanity? The existing legislation on human rights in Indonesia is arguably sufficient. Therefore, Indonesia's commitment to upholding human rights will depend on the quality of law enforcers -- both judges and state prosecutors -- as well as the commitment of the government in taking action against violations of human rights.

In the meantime, several of the ad hoc judges criticized have kept a low profile. "Just wait. We will give you the best possible results," said Binsar. Rizki was more outspoken in rejecting accusations that he actively helped Wiranto. "My position at that time was only as a passive assistant to Professor Muladi," said Rizki. An active contributor to the Habibie Center, Rizki has promised to prove that he can adjudicate independently.

[Wens Manggut, Hani Pudjiarti, Dwi Arjanto]

UNHCHR steps up pressure on Indonesia

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2002

Annastashya Emmanuelle, Jakarta -- The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR) stepped up its pressure on Wednesday for Indonesia to act swiftly against militiamen and others connected to human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999, promising to send international observers to monitor an upcoming rights tribunal.

At the end of a three-day visit to Indonesia on Wednesday, UNHCHR Chairman Leandro Despouy told the press that, by March 18, he hoped to be able to report to the Geneva-based commission that an ad hoc trial -- based on international standards of promptness and fairness and conforming with Indonesian law -- was already underway.

"We view the establishment of the ad hoc tribunal as maximum cooperation. The presence of international observers would be unavoidable; the observers will come," to monitor the proceedings, Despouy said, without further elaboration.

Despouy arrived here on Monday to get first-hand information on steps being taken by Jakarta to bring to justice those guilty of mass human rights violations in East Timor before and after a UN-sponsored referendum on independence in 1999.

During his visit, Despouy met with President Megawati Soekarnoputri and officials from the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, the Supreme Court, and Attorney General M.A. Rachman. On Monday, he told the Megawati administration to get serious about the upcoming human rights tribunal.

While offering a positive note on Indonesia's effort in establishing the tribunal, Despouy added that the court should meet international parameters so as to have credibility with the international community.

In his meeting with Attorney General Rahman on Wednesday, Despouy received assurance that those responsible for the 1999 killing of Dutch journalist Sander Thoenes in East Timor would also be brought to justice. "Investigation by the Dutch government in East Timor has allowed for submission of evidence to the court," Despuoy said.

Before and after the UN-sponsored ballot 1999, in which East Timorese overwhelmingly voted to break away from Indonesia, local militias -- financed and backed by the military -- went on a rampage throughout the territory, slaughtering hundreds of pro- independence East Timorese.

Human rights activists and East Timor's transitional government, represented by East Timor Public Administration's Department of Foreign Affairs, Philipe Rodriguez, have threatened to bring the human rights violators before an international tribunal.

After several delays, on January 14, President Megawati issued decree No. 6/2000 establishing the long-awaited ad hoc tribunal to study evidence against reported human rights abusers in East Timor and the Tanjung Priok incident in 1984. Thus far, no trial date has been set.

The suspects in the cases include, Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, who headed the Udayana military Command; Brig. Gen. Suhartono Suratman and Brig. Gen. M. Nur Muis, former commander of the Dili Military Command; Col. Yayat Sudrajat, then head of Tribuana Task Force, and Brig. Gen. Timbul Silaen, the former East Timor police chief.

UN rights chief sets deadline for Indonesia's tribunal

Deutsche Presse-Agentur - January 23, 2002

Jakarta -- The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR) has set a deadline of March 18 for Indonesia to begin trials of suspects accused of gross human rights violations in East Timor in 1999, the commission's chairman said Wednesday.

"I hope that I can report to the United Nations on March 18 that the tribunal has been established, and is meeting international parameters," said UNHCHR chairman Leandro Despouy.

Despouy told a press conference there had been some positive developments in setting up the long-delayed tribunal, such as President Megawati Sukarnoputri's decision last week to name 30 judges to sit on the tribunal and the appeals court.

In talks with Megawati on Monday, he warned that the international community was closely watching for further developments in the tribunal process.

Despouy, however, dodged questions on what the UNHCHR would do if the trials were delayed till after March 18, or if procedures were not up to international standards.

At least 19 senior Indonesian military, police and provincial officials have been accused of gross human rights violations before and after the UN-organised independence ballot in East Timor in August 1999.

Megawati reportedly told the visiting UNHCHR chief the human rights court would be conducted "justly".

Pro-Jakarta militias, backed by the Indonesian military, went on a rampage in the aftermath of East Timor's overwhelming vote for independence in 1999, killing hundreds of people and destroying most of the buildings in the territory.

The groups also herded hundreds of thousands of East Timorese, many of them at gunpoint, across the border into the Indonesian- ruled West Timor.

Some of the suspects are accused of slaughtering civilians who had taken shelter in churches under the protection of Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo and pro-independence figure Manuel Carrascalao in the towns of Liquica, Suai and Dili, East Timor.

Lecturer approved to join bench for human rights tribunal

Australian Associated Press - January 20, 2002

Catharine Munro, Jakarta -- When Guntur Alfie's friends and colleagues told him to buy a bullet proof vest to sit in judgment on Indonesian military officers charged with human rights abuses in East Timor, they were only half joking.

The university lecturer has been approved by President Megawati Sukarnoputri to join the bench for Indonesia's unprecedented and long-delayed human rights tribunal.

The US Congress has made the bringing of rights abusers to justice a key requirement for re-establishing military ties with Indonesia.

But as details emerge of how the court will be run, legal experts and human rights lobby groups are becoming concerned that the government has not provided the crucial requirements for a just court. "The signs are that the emphasis is not being placed on delivering justice in accordance with international standards, it's about providing a show," said Amnesty's Indonesia researcher Lucia Withers.

Amnesty supports Jakarta's efforts, believing that it is better for the perpetrators of human rights abuses to be tried in their own country, rather than in an international court.

But one of the concerns is the low rate of pay for those on the bench, which has been a barrier to tackling corruption in Indonesia's courts.

For example, when hearing a case, Guntur will be paid 4,500,000 rupiah a month, the salary of a secretary in the private sector.

A lecturer in legal administration at a regional university, Guntur must give up his main source of income -- working as a legal adviser -- to join the bench.

"If you look at the price of daily needs nowadays it may not be adequate," Guntur said. "But since it's a duty for my country I am ready to do my job, although the risks far outweigh the benefits," he said.

Guntur would be well aware that Supreme Court judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, who had been responsible for setting up the tribunal, was assassinated in broad daylight by expert marksmen.

Police allege that it was the youngest son of the former dictator Suharto who ordered Kartasasmita's killing, and suspects are now before the court.

But some observers maintain that the military had more of an interest in killing the judge, who had delivered at least one favorable judgment for the Suharto family.

The government has not decided whether it will provide security for the 35 judges of the tribunal, which will include 18 legal experts and 17 permanent judges.

One appointee, district court judge Binsar Gultom, said he wanted his family's safety assured. "I would urge the government to provide security measures for the judges and their family," Binsar said.

The East Timor-based Judicial System Monitoring Program (JSMP) said security was going to be a problem for a court that would challenge members of one of the country's most powerful institutions, the security forces.

"The previous judge was already killed and we don't know who did it," said program director Christian Ranheim.

Of concern to Amnesty and JSMP is the absence to date of a protection program for witnesses of the two cases that Indonesia has agreed to try -- the massacres at Liquica and Suai in the months leading up to the August 30 vote for independence in East Timor.

"If you don't get witnesses from East Timor -- victims and victims' families -- you won't have a fair trial," Ranheim said.

Indonesia has already lost support from one key international body, the office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHRC).

UNHRC has backed out of a scheme to provide training for the judges in protest at President Megawati Sukarnoputri's decision to narrow the scope of the tribunal to specific months before the independence vote.

There are claims that Indonesia is not pursuing the big military fish, such as then military commander and Security Minister Wiranto.

But the accused officers who have been named as suspects are still too powerful, according to University of Indonesia criminal law expert Harkristuti Harkrisnowo.

The most senior officer to be named is General Adam Damiri, a two-star general who was regional commander based in Bali and remains on active duty.

"Their position would make witnesses and the victims too scared so they would not give a full account to the public prosecutor," said Harkristuti.

Compounding their challenges, the judges have only received one week's training in the highly complex field of human rights law, according to Justice Department director general Soejatno.

Amnesty's Withers said judges hearing cases of atrocities in Rwanda and Bosnia usually had 15 to 20 years' experience. "Are these people actually going to understand what they are dealing with?" she asked. According to one of the judicial appointees contacted by AAP, the answer is no.

"I feel that few people on the bench have adequate knowledge of human rights... I noticed that when we talked during the breaks (in training)," he said on condition of anonymity.

Rights court must meet world standards: UN rights chief

Agence France Presse - January 23, 2002 (abridged)

Jakarta -- An Indonesian human rights court to try those accused of violence in East Timor in 1999 must meet international standards, the visiting president of the UN Human Rights Commission said on Wednesday.

"It [the tribunal] should be done under Indonesian law but it is also very important that international parameters are respected and these principles guide the judgement," Leandro Despouy said, speaking through a translator. "People must be judged by the national law but this law must also conform to international law," he said. Despouy said the tribunal would be closely monitored by international observers and that the press "will be very vigilant."

He hailed as "positive" last week's move by President Megawati Sukarnoputri to name judges to try military officers and others accused of human rights abuses before and after the UN-organised independence ballot in East Timor in August 1999.

He also welcomed Indonesia's Supreme Court decision to increase the jail terms on three East Timorese militiamen involved in the brutal killing of three UN employees in West Timor.

"When in Geneva on the 18th of March I will be able to inform the commission that in Indonesia the tribunal has been established, procedures in terms of international cooperation are both rapid and efficient and there has been some progress made in terms of the accusation and judgement." "I also hope to be able to say to the international community that all of this has been done in respect to the international parameters," he said.

Despouy said the UN human rights commission would provide training as soon as possible for judges on the tribunal.

Megawati last week named 18 non-career judges and 12 career judges to work on the tribunal. The court will also try alleged offenders in the Tanjung Priok case, in which the military shot dead at least nine Muslim demonstrators in 1984, in addition to the Timor case. The trials could start early next month, officials have said.

UN gives cautious support to Indonesian court

Melbourne Age - January 19, 2002

Jill Jolliffe, Maliana -- A special court to judge suspects accused of crimes in East Timor in 1999 should be given a chance, the chairman of the United Nation's Human Rights Commission said on the eve of his visit to Jakarta.

But ambassador Leandro Despouy warned that if national trials failed, the UN could set up an international court.

Mr Despouy said the hope that parallel trials in Dili and Jakarta could bring justice to families of the victims had not been exhausted. "We must first trust in national mechanisms. Later, we might have to think of an international solution," he said.

During the 1999 violence, militia gangs acting with the Indonesian army killed more than 1000 people, burnt down towns and forcibly deported around 250,000 people to West Timor.

He said he expected to meet senior government officials to discuss prosecutions of those involved in the Timor violence, and to be briefed on the workings of a newly established special court.

Earlier this week, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri approved the names of 12 judges to hear charges against 18 people -- including three army generals and a police general -- accused of major human rights violations committed in East Timor in 1999.

A 1999 UN Security Council resolution determined those responsible for violence in the wake of East Timor's August 30 referendum should be tried, but the world body did not take up a recommendation by a human rights investigation team that an international court should hear the cases.

It opted instead for a two-track process of trials in East Timor and Indonesia, with Jakarta promising to try its own offenders.

During his five-day visit to Timor, Mr Despouy heard testimony from victims in the towns of Maliana and Balibo. He told them that as an Argentinian who was exiled from his country, he had direct knowledge of repression and disappearances.

He listened quietly to dramatic evidence from villagers and at one point embraced a sobbing woman when she broke down while giving testimony. Many relatives of victims told him they had no faith in Indonesian promises to bring offenders to trial, and some even said they would take justice into their own hands unless the UN acted soon.

Placido dos Santos, of Cailaco, near Maliana, demanded to know why victims' families were not being informed on the progress of prosecutions. "We know the perpetrators, and have given their names," he said. "Some of these people are in Indonesia, others are walking free in Dili today."

After listening to hours of testimony, the ambassador urged the families to trust in the UN's commitment to bring the guilty to justice, and promised to transmit their concerns to Secretary- General Kofi Annan and to Indonesian authorities. He said later the testimony was "very painful to hear".

He said it was obvious the border region had been hard-hit by the 1999 violence and that it could be an area of future tension if local people felt justice had not been done.

One issue Mr Despouy is likely to raise in Jakarta is the question of arrest warrants issued by prosecutors in Timor for Indonesian citizens during trials already held here.

Under an April, 2000 agreement between the Indonesian Government and the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor, Jakarta has a commitment to hand over suspects, but so far has not responded to a single case, or to requests to interview people in the presence of UN officials.

Meanwhile, administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello has named seven East Timorese to serve as commissioners on a South African-style truth and reconciliation commission.

News & issues

Decision on new province irks Riau governor

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2002

Jakarta -- The proposed formation of a Riau Islands province has stirred strong discord pitting the central government and the islands' inhabitants -- some of whom oppose the idea -- against the current Riau province on the mainland, which seeks a democratic compromise on the issue.

On Friday, Riau Governor Saleh Djasid offered a cynical reaction to the decision by the House of Representatives' special committee the day before to accommodate the proposal. If the creation of the new province is based solely on the House's agreement, he said, "such a mechanism does not educate people on how to comply with the law." As the controversy intensified, meanwhile, two groups of students -- for and against the new province -- were almost embroiled in a physical confrontation during their separate demonstrations outside the Riau provincial legislative council in the capital of Pekanbaru on Friday.

Students opposed to the breakaway province accused the House of creating needless divisions among the Riau people which could spread to disintegration at the national level.

During the two demonstrations, the governor held a hearing with the legislature's special committee to discuss the subject of tap water in the province. At that time, the governor changed his vehicle license plate number from a government one to a civilian one to allow him to enter and leave the legislature compound unhindered by protesters.

The group of student demonstrators who support the establishment of a new province dispersed shortly after security personnel were deployed outside the legislative compound.

The governor said he had no objections to the House's decision, but added that the state should be allowed to make its own decisions. Such legislative procedure, he added, is paramount to educating the public to both understand and respect the law. "There are many problems to be solved before the House lends its weight to the proposal," he said.

The House's special committee was set up last year after the legislators agreed with the idea, and set the process in motion by drafting a law on the foundation of the new province.

The House's special committee deliberated the draft law in the would-be province at a Thursday meeting before more than 2,000 residents of the Riau Islands, who supported autonomy.

The movement toward a new province has met the most opposition from the Riau provincial legislative council and Natuna, one of five regencies on the Riau Islands. The other four regencies -- all of which support the new province -- are Batam, Karimun, Riau Islands and Tanjungpinang.

Indonesia a truly sick nation: Scholar

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2002

Rita A. Widiadana, Denpasar -- Indonesia will soon become "the backyard" nation among Asian countries if it fails to combat serious corruption and a lousy work ethic, says noted Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid.

Speaking at the annual meeting of Muhammadiyah here, Nurcholish said Indonesia was already lagging behind other countries in finance, education, science, culture but most importantly in morality and mentality. "We should be ashamed to be known as 'lazy and poor people.' Indonesia will always be at the rear end and looked down on by others. It is strange that most Indonesians, especially those in power and politics, are reluctant to lead simple and modest lives. We are a bankrupt country, why should we behave as if we are a rich people?" said the rector of Paramadina University.

He said that during the meeting of the Consultative Group of Indonesia (CGI), Indonesian officials, who were actually begging for more money and increased debt, drove shiny Mercedes Benz while those from donor countries took subway trains.

Such behavior was the legacy of the nation's feudalistic, paternalistic and snobbish culture which grew like a plant on fertile land and was as deeply entrenched among the authorities and the people now as it was during the New Order regime, he said.

"All government officials act like kings who should be adored and served by their subordinates," he told a visibly shocked audience of 300 top executives of Muhammadiyah, a social and cultural organization.

Other speakers at the meeting included Jacob Oetama of the daily newspaper Kompas and historian Taufik Abdullah. People's Consultative Assembly speaker Amien Rais was scheduled to speak but failed to appear. The meeting finishes Sunday.

"Corruption, collusion and nepotism," Nurcholish said, "has become our culture. It is very hard to change the existing corruption culture which has been embodied in our lives for more than four decades. Indonesia is a really sick and immature nation which urgently needs enlightenment," Nurcholish said.

He urged Muhammadiyah to provide role models and to stand at the forefront of a religious, social and cultural movement. Nurcholish said that in l998 Indonesia had already entered "an enlightened period" with the emergence of reform movement, an era he likened the 15th century European Renaissance.

"No other period in the history of the nation offered such an opportunity for the emergence of civil liberties as the reform era which was marked by the fall of Soeharto and his New Order regime," he said.

The current reform era, he said, was a golden opportunity to implement the best actions and thoughts on how to build a modern state in contrast to the authoritarian and feudalistic regime of the New Order era. "But, after almost four years, people see no significant changes. Everything remains the same, if anything, with more messy and chaotic conditions in terms of social, economic and politics," he said.

The people and politicians were now looking to President Megawati Soekarnoputri, he said. "Any president who is unable to meet people's high expectations will risk his or her position," he said.

Nurcholish, however, admitted that the reform movement had resulted in public euphoria and uncontrolled freedom among the people at all levels. This is very logical, he said, many of them have acted like "wild horses" because they had never had the opportunity to speak their minds and to express their feelings freely.

"Freedom is a blessing for our nation. Therefore, don't ever try to close the door of civil liberties for the sake of maintaining power and the nation's security," he said.

Suharto's biographer convinced he did not engineer 1965 coup

Agence France Presse - January 22, 2002

Jakarta -- The latest biographer of former Indonesian dictator Suharto said Tuesday he believed the ex-president had no part in plotting the 1965 coup that indirectly paved his way to power.

Australian academic Robert E. Elson also said he believed Suharto was not personally corrupt despite the billions allegedly amassed by his family during his 32-year rule, The then lieutenant- general Suharto headed the army's elite strategic reserve Kostrad when coup plotters kidnapped and killed six rightist army generals in 1965 -- an event shrouded in mystery ever since.

Suharto crushed the coup and officially took over from founding president Sukarno in 1967. He and his government blamed the now defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) for the botched coup which many have speculated he had a hand in masterminding.

Elson, author of "Suharto, A Political Biography," told a lunch with foreign journalists that "the argument that Suharto was involved as an active conspirator is almost certainly wrong." "I have found no evidence ... which indicates Suharto was in any direct way involved in the coup." Elson, who has studied Indonesia for more than 20 years, said the plot was the work of a group of junior officers against some senior rightist members of the army.

"This was a classic case of a bungled attempt to change the face of politics," he said.

But what began as a leftist attempt to rearrange the balance of political forces started going badly wrong as soon as the generals were murdered. Suharto, as the most senior officer in command after the generals were kidnapped, suppressed the coup after just a few hours.

Blaming the PKI, then Asian's second largest communist party after China, he secured full power from Sukarno to reestablish order in March 1996 and immediately banned communism.

He then led a bloody campaign, purportedly against communists and their allies, that left some half a million dead across the archipelago.

Elson also said he believed Suharto had not amassed a single penny under his own name. The US Time Magazine alleged after Suharto stepped down in May 1998 that he and his family were sitting on a fortune of some 15 billion dollars.

"I would be very surprised that Suharto would have one single cent in his name," Elson said, adding he was not interested in money but in power.

However, he said Suharto would see "no problem with someone who advances the good of society as a whole to receive a kickback." Elson said Suharto's "greatest crime" was that his rule was so personalised that it "effectively meant Indonesia could not move anywhere unless someone was pulling the strings."

Suharto, 80, has been in and out of hospital for a minor stroke and other ailments. He spends his time under treatment at his home in the Menteng upscale residential area of Jakarta.

He was charged in 2000 with embezzling 571 million dollars in state funds but has never stood trial due to his reported illness.

Despite police's vow, Tommy's fate still plagued by uncertainty

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2002

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta -- Though accomplices implicated in crimes allegedly masterminded by Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra are being tried, the fate of former president Soeharto's youngest son remains clouded in uncertainty.

Police restated Tuesday that its cases against Tommy, relating to his involvement in four main crimes, were strong.

The cases involve Tommy's alleged involvement in the murder of Supreme Court Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, the illegal possession of ammunition and rifles, his involvement in a spate of bomb attacks in Jakarta and contempt of law.

However, police have yet to say when Tommy will be charged and brought before a court.

Jakarta Police Detective Chief Sr. Comr. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said it was still waiting for the prosecutors' response to know if its submitted investigation results were complete.

Last week, the South Jakarta Prosecutors' Office returned two dossiers submitted by the police, relating to the murder of Syafiuddin and illegal possession of guns, due to a lack of evidence.

Bambang said police would next start interrogating Tommy about his year on the run after fleeing an 18-month prison sentence for his role in the Goro-Bulog (State Logistics Agency) land scam. He was later acquitted of the charges.

He admitted that police were still undecided as to whether to pursue a case against Tommy for his alleged masterminding of a string of bomb attacks when he was at large. "We will pursue the case later because it is a complex case," he said, without elaborating.

Tommy has been detained for 55 days since his eventual arrest last November. Many observers, fed up with political interference and corruption in the country's legal system, suspect the prolonged nature of the police investigation means it has fallen foul of outside influences.

Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) activist Hendardi said police were attempting to cover for the powerful network which had helped Tommy hide. He pointed out a police ploy to put Tommy's crimes in separate dossiers, alleging it was a maneuver to distract attention from the network.

"They try to distract public attention from the broader context of the powerful network behind Tommy to common offenses conducted by his accomplices," he said, implying political deals behind Tommy's arrest.

Hendardi said the police's excuses for their failure to quickly arrest Tommy had shown the strength of the network.

Instead of police detaining Tommy's aides during its search, it was busy pursuing other cases to bewilder the public, including an extortion case allegedly involving former president Abdurrahman Wahid.

"It's a common practice conducted by law enforcers to buy time." Hendardi said buying time allowed either police or the prosecutors to hide or destroy evidence.

He also warned the public that the returned dossiers showed police had not prepared strong cases.

"It indicates that police have no strong convincing evidence in the Tommy's cases." Hendardi said should Tommy be sentenced by the court, it would most probably be a light one.

Indonesian Corruption Watch legal observer Iskandar Sonhaji warned there were more obvious moves by Tommy's aides to clear him from all accusations.

Defendants R. Maulawarman, alias Molla, and Noval Hadad have withdrawn their earlier statements relating to the drive-by shooting of Syafiuddin. The newest statements state they did not know Tommy in person.

Instead, they confessed they were hired by Frans, an aide of Tommy, who provided the rifles and money to carry out the assassination. Frans is currently still at large.

Informal sector/urban poor

Public furious at Tramtib's violence, demand changes

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2002

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- Due to its alleged "inhuman and violent practices" recently, the City Public Order Agency (Tramtib) has come under strong criticism from some members of the public and non-governmental organizations, with some groups calling for its dissolution.

Daniem, an illegal street vendor operating in the vicinity of the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta, slammed the violent practices conducted by Tramtib.

"They've torn down my cart arbitrarily five times already. They also took my cart and merchandise to Cakung in East Jakarta. I was tried there and then fined Rp 35,000 every time I want to take back my belongings," she said, adding that she also had to rent a truck for about Rp 150,000 every time she wanted to transport her belongings.

Another victim of Tramtib was Untung, a street vendor operating in Jl. Sudirman in Central Jakarta. He was once hit by a Tramtib officer when he failed to move his cart off the premises in a prompt manner. "I hate them because they're always rude. We're just trying to earn a living here without causing any harm to anybody. They must stop using force," he said.

Ailing, a victim of the ID card (KTP) raids on Tuesday in Pejagalan subdistrict, North Jakarta, said that after she was slapped by a Tramtib officer her resentment toward the agency had deepened even more. "I swear I will sue them soon ... this is a heavy violation against our rights", she said while tears flowed.

The city administration has at least 3600 Tramtib officers in its five mayoralties. They consist of 1000 members of the civil service police (Satpol), 2300 members of the civilian assistance to police (Banpol) and 300 former military and police personnel who are nearing retirement. The administration has allocated some Rp 65 billion (US$6.5 million) for the Tramtib operation. They are also armed with guns.

When asked to comment on the public criticism, Tonni Boediono, the head of the North Jakarta Public Order Office, who reportedly slapped two girls, including Ailing, during ID card raids on Tuesday, denied that his institution had adopted violent practices. "There's no such thing [as violence within our agency]. We're just attempting to defend ourselves from their attacks. If we are caught slapping someone, then the mayor will scorn us", he said.

When asked how he felt after the slapping incident, Tonni, in a relaxed tone, said that it was a usual practice and he was only carrying out his duties. Eyewitnesses however, claim they saw him slap the two girls during Tuesday's raids. He also reportedly hit Lukman, the secretary of a neighborhood unit in Pejagalan subdistrict in North Jakarta, when he tried to calm down the angry officer.

The secretary for National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM), Asmara Nababan, said that Tramtib was not effective in enforcing law and order because they tend to be repressive. "Tramtib always triggers violence among the public. Their violent practices have caused them to fail in maintaining the city's law and order. They have to adopt a more human approach," said Asmara.

R.J.Sudrijanta, the coordinator of the Network Against Forced Eviction (JAP), a non-governmental organization, said that Tramtib's methods of maintaining law and order in the city violated human rights, as it adopted inhuman and violent practices.

Sudrijanta said that his organization had appealed to the city administration to shut down the institution as they had made no contribution at all to the welfare or the order of the city. "They always cause destruction and suffering to the public. Due to Tramtib's ineffective measures in maintaining law and order, the administration should liquidate its existence," he said.

Riots allegedly triggered by Tramtib operations in 2001:

1. Jan. 19, 2001, Tramtib vs illegal street vendors, National Monument Park (Monas), Central Jakarta, 5 vendors injured.; 2. Mar. 30, 2001, Tramtib vs illegal street vendors, Kebayoran Lama market, South Jakarta; 3. Apr. 18, 2001, Tramtib vs illegal street vendors, National Monument and Gambir railway station, Central Jakarta.; 4. May 17, 2001, Tramtib vs food cart vendors, Jl. Pramuka, Central Jakarta.; 5. Aug. 14, 2001, Tramtib vs pedicab drivers, Roxy shopping center, Central Jakarta.; 6. Aug. 22, 2001, Tramtib vs pedicab drivers, Jl. R.E. Martadinata, North Jakarta.; 7. Aug. 23, 2001, Tramtib vs illegal squatters, Berikat Nusantara Area, North Jakarta.; 8. Aug. 29, 2001, Tramtib vs illegal street vendors, Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta.; 9. Oct. 4, 2001. Tramtib vs pedicab drivers, Penjaringan subdistrict, North Jakarta.; 10. Oct. 25, 2001, Tramtib vs squatters, Ancol subdistrict, North Jakarta.; 11. Nov. 31, 2001, Tramtib vs squatters, West Flood Canal, North Jakarta.; 12. December 20, 2001, Tramtib vs illegal vendors, National Monument, Central Jakarta.;

Repressive action in raids regretted

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2002

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta -- City councillors have expressed regret at the violence and repression used by some Jakarta administration officials during its controversial identification card raids early this week.

Council commission E for social welfare affairs chairwoman Wasilah Sutrisno called on officials from the City Public Order Agency to stop the violence against residents, mainly the poor, during the raids.

"The officials were supposed to only guard their colleagues from the City Population Agency during the raids. Let their colleagues handle the problem. They must talk [instead of using violence]," National Mandate Party councillor Wasilah said.

She was referring to violence, including an incident when the head of the North Jakarta Public Order Office, Tonny Boediono, stormed into a house and slapped two girls in the face thinking they were attempting to escape.

Wasilah said despite the violence, she still supported the raids to uphold the bylaw 1/1999 on population and the bylaw 11/1988 on public order.

Councillor Sayogo Hendrosubroto pointed out that the raids would not solve overpopulation problems as the main issue was the economic conditions of the illegal residents. "The ID card raids, like evictions [of the urban poor], need better treatment," Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle councillor Sayogo, adding the victims were the poor and supporters of his party. "We have suggested improvements and solutions to the raids and evictions but the administration never listened to us."

On Tuesday, a total of 1,763 people were checked and 549 of them were tried in the ID card operation. Seventy three were then freed and the remaining 473 people fined. Nearly 40 people would be sent home after serving a month at the city's rehabilitation center in Kedoya, West Jakarta.

Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) chairman Azas Tigor Nainggolan also urged the administration to stop the raids as it violated human rights. "The administration must punish its officials who used violence against the people during the raids and free those at the Kedoya center."

Azas urged the administration to give free ID cards to the people in a transparent way. People must pay between Rp 50,000 (US$4.8) and Rp 100,000 to subdistrict officers to get a resident ID card.

ID card raids ineffective and ridiculous, critics say

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2002

Primastuti Handayani, Jakarta -- Critics condemned the Jakarta administration for continuing its controversial door-to-door ID card raids Wednesday, saying the policy violated human rights, and was also ineffective and ridiculous.

Dadan Umar Daihani, director of the research department of Trisakti University, said he did not see the point of the raids and claimed they would be ineffective in solving current problems. "Is it true that someone is only allowed to work and be in the province or city where he comes from? That's too much. It limits one's mobility. What will happen if an Irianese travels to Jakarta to see Monas [the National Monument] and fails to show a Jakarta ID card? Does it mean he can't visit the capital?" asked Dadan, who is also the chairman of the university's industrial- technical post-graduate program.

"If the administration is conducting the raids to prevent urbanization, the policy will definitely be ineffective. Do they really want Jakarta to be an exclusive area? I don't see the urgency [of the raids]. Is it to prevent urbanization or crime? It seems the officials have nothing else to do," he told The Jakarta Post.

Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto, head of the city and urban society division of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, said that the officials should stop the raids as they went against human rights. "They always claim to be conducting such raids to regularize illegals as they don't have Jakarta ID cards. Their actions, however, violate people's human rights as regards freedom and the right to live in any part of the country."

He also questioned the procedures employed during the raids. "Do the officials involved in the raids carry warrants from the local district court? What usually happens is the officials assault the residents."

In Tuesday's raids, 1,763 people were checked and 549 of them were tried. A total of 76 were set free while 473 people were fined. Thirty-seven others will be sent back home next month after spending a month in the Kedoya rehabilitation center in West Jakarta.

Tubagus claimed that during the trials the accused were not informed of the violations they were alleged to have committed nor their rights. He also said that should the administration want to regularize population affairs, it should set its own house in order first. "How many civil servants at City Hall live in Jakarta? Most of them reside on the outskirts of the capital. The first targets for the raids should be within the administration itself, if we want to be that extreme ..."

Urban Poor Consortium chairwoman Wardah Hafidz said separately that the raids not only violated the people's rights but also failed to solve the problem. "It doesn't solve the problem. These persons can only do these sort of jobs and they don't disturb others. Given that the administration is checking on non-Jakarta people, are Jakartans going to be treated the same way if they visit Yogyakarta or Surakarta? Are we going to set up city states?"

She said that the ID card raids would not help to establish order in the city, let alone solve urban and social problems. "In general, urbanization is a national issue. As the capital, 80 percent of the money goes to Jakarta. Therefore, numerous workers come to the city to find jobs." "The government should implement decentralization to provide more job vacancies throughout the country."

ID card raids continue despite protests

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2002

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- Despite the outcry from city residents, the public order agency continued on Wednesday its controversial door-to-door identity card (KTP) raids in Penjaringan district, North Jakarta, arbitrarily arresting some 98 people, mostly low-income workers.

The 98 residents, including maids, baby-sitters, gardeners and restaurant employees, were all taken to the district office, where they were tried by Judge A.S. Pudjoharsoyo from the North Jakarta District Court. The judge allowed six to walk free after he saw their Jakarta KTPs, and fined 78 people. The remaining 14 refused to go to the court.

One of those released was Wong Yit Chan, a resident of Pluit Apartments, who said that she was drying her family's clothes when the officers came to arrest her. She said she had a Jakarta KTP that had been issued by the Jelambar subdistrict in West Jakarta. However, the officer forced her to go to court, on a charge of failing to report her stay to the local authorities within 14 days.

"I've already told the chief of the neighborhood that I would be staying here for a while. I'm not a criminal and I already have my West Jakarta KTP. It's ridiculous that they confiscated my KTP and detained me," she said during her trial at the district office.

The trials, which are normally open to the public, were closed to reporters, as none was allowed to attend.

The arrested residents, as in the previous KTP trials, were not informed what offenses they had committed. "The judge did not explain my offense; they simply told me to apply for a temporary KTP if I still wanted to work here", said Sutrisno, a gardener who had come to Jakarta from Banyumas a year ago. Sutrisno was fined Rp 20,500. Sutrisno was arrested while he was cleaning his employer's courtyard in a neighborhood of Penjaringan subdistrict.

Another resident, Christianto, steadfastly refused to be taken to the district office as he said he had to work. However, the officers forced him to go. "I'm not an illegal resident, I have my KTP, although it is a Tangerang one. I've already told the chief of the neighborhood that I'm staying here," he said bitterly. Christianto was later fined Rp, 15,000 after waiting for about three hours.

During Tuesday's raids, which were aimed at discouraging unskilled newcomers from coming to Jakarta, the officers acted harshly and did not hesitate to use force.

The controversial KTP raids have been based on City Bylaw No. 1/2001, which says that every resident 17 years old and above must have his own identity card. Article 12 says that every guest and temporary resident is obliged to report to the respective sub-district office within 14 days of their arrival. After reporting, the office then issues a letter confirming their status as a guest or issues a temporary KTP. Application of the regulations for commuters, who dwell in the adjacent suburbs but work in Jakarta, was still unclear.

Deputy mayor of North Jakarta Pinondang Simanjuntak and Judge Pontas from the North Jakarta district court said on Tuesday that the commuters could be charged under the bylaw. "They must have a temporary Jakarta KTP as they are working in Jakarta. So they have to obey the city regulations", said Pontas.

In contrast, head of the city population agency Sylviana Murni firmly stated that commuters holding Bekasi, Tangerang or Bogor ID cards could not be charged under the city bylaw. "An ID card is proof of someone's home address; if a commuter can show his ID card when asked, he will not be charged. It is clear for us that he lives outside Jakarta," she said.

In relation to the budget for the raids, Sylviana said that it was part of the agency's routine expenditure, amounting to only about Rp 100 million per year for all five mayoralties. The costs were likely to jump, as each low-ranking public order officer was paid Rp 20,000 per day during the raids. In North Jakarta at least 372 officers were deployed in the raids over two days. The city public order agency has an operational budget of Rp 65 billion per year for the five mayoralties.

Jakarta conducts violent ID card raid

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2002

Jakarta -- The city administration started its controversial door-to-door ID card raids in the five mayoralties on Tuesday, arbitrarily arresting 1,763 people, even though many of them had the necessary documentation.

During the raids, which were aimed at discouraging unskilled newcomers from coming to the city to try their luck, the officers acted harshly and did not hesitate to use force.

Head of the North Jakarta Public Order Office Tonny Boediono stormed into a house in Pejagalan subdistrict and slapped the owner's two daughters, Ailing and Maymay, in the face, as the official thought they were going to escape. When the officers arrived at the house, Ailing did not allow them to enter. She told them to wait as she wanted to go to her room to get her ID card.

However, the officers thought that she was going to run away, and forced their way into the house. They grabbed Ailing and her sister Maymay. As the two resisted, Boediono slapped them on the face and pushed them aside. Secretary of the community unit Lukman was also hit as he tried to calm down the angry officers. Ailing's house is used as a small factory for plastic and glass, employing at least 40 workers. Some of the workers with a non- Jakarta ID card were arrested.

They were all taken to the subdistrict office, where a trial was held under Judge Pontas Effendi, from the North Jakarta District Court. The judge allowed them to go after he saw their ID cards, which had been taken to the subdistrict office by their father. Ailing, who has been living in the area for 20 years, told The Jakarta Post that the raid was shocking, and that she intended to sue the officers. "We were raided as if we were common criminals. What was our offense?" she asked angrily.

Prayitno, who works with Aling, said that he was fined Rp 15,500 without knowing what offense he had committed. "The judge did not elaborate on my offense or what [legal] article I had violated. He simply ordered me to pay the fine, that's all," said Prayitno, originally from Lampung, South Sumatra.

The fines differed from one mayoralty to another. In Central Jakarta the lowest was Rp 35,000, while the highest was Rp 80,000.

Of the 1,763 people arrested during Tuesday's raids in the city, most were released after they managed to show their Jakarta ID cards. A total of 549 were tried, of which 473 were fined and 76 were freed as they were found not guilty. Another 37 were sentto the Kedoya rehabilitation center. Those 37 will be sent home after being "counseled" at the center for about one month.

Late last month, when the city announced its intention to carry out the raids, activists were critical as, they said, the raids had no legal basis and were against human rights. The raids, dubbed judicial operation on population, were based on City Bylaw No.1/1996 and Bylaw No. 1/2001 on population, which oblige the public to have the proper documentation.

Head of the city population agency Sylviana Murni, however, said on Tuesday that the raids would be continued throughout the year. Governor Sutiyoso had earlier said that Jakarta should become a closed city due to the number of unskilled outsiders, who caused complicated social problems.

In previous years the city administration tried to stem the influx of people arriving from the city after the Idul Fitri holidays by checking their ID cards at bus terminals, but the moves were not effective.

The population of Jakarta is more than 8.3 million by night. By day, however, workers from the city's hinterland of Tangerang, Bekasi and Depok swell the number to 11 million.

Environment

Toll road, housing blamed for floods

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2002

Annastashya Emmanuelle, Jakarta -- State Minister of the Environment Nabiel Makarim has said the construction of both the toll road, which leads to the Soekarno-Hatta airport and the Pantai Indah Kapuk real estate are a cause of the city's flooding problems.

"The establishment of the real estate was opposed by Emil Salim [former minister of the environment]. Both projects should never have taken place," Nabiel told a media conference after accompanying past winners of the Kalpataru Award to meet President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Thursday.

The Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) waterfront complex was built on 800 hectares of formerly protected mangrove forest in West Jakarta. It has caused flooding due to the reclamation of the swamp by its developer, PT Mandara Permai. Despite persistent criticisms from environmental activists, the city's environmental impact agency (BAPEDALDA) approved the establishment of the real estate in 1995.

Since then the Sedyatmo toll road, which leads to the airport, has always been deluged after heavy rain. The toll operator has elevated the freeway from its original construction, but Nabil, however, doubts its effectiveness. The developer of PIK has denied allegations that its project has caused flooding on the toll road.

As for the regular flooding in the rest of the capital, which has always left hundreds of houses inundated and caused major traffic congestion, Nabiel blamed the development of water catchment areas in and around the city, including in Bogor and Puncak, West Java, for the sake of villa construction. "It is impossible to avoid flooding now ... we can only take preventive action after the rainy season is over," he added.

One of the solutions, Nabiel asserted, was to plant trees for water catchment, although the effort would not pay off in the immediate future. "Planting trees would at least curb the potential for flooding. But this process will take some time as we must wait for the trees to grow," he said. He said flooding in certain areas across the country was also inevitable due to environmental degradation and would only ease after the rainy season had ended.

Health & education

West Java struggles with decade-long teacher crisis

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2002

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung -- West Java, a large province closest to the capital, Jakarta, has hidden its decade-long teacher crisis behind its achievements in the field of education.

The province is known nationwide for its prestigious Padjadjaran and Parahyangan Universities, the Bandung Institute of Technology and Bogor Institute of Agriculture, but almost all elementary and high schools in remote areas of the province are short of a total of 60,000 teaching staff.

It is no longer surprising to see that a teacher has to teach two classes or more in elementary and high schools in remote subdistricts in Cianjur, Sukabumi, Indramayu, Majalengka, Depok and Bogor.

Iim Wasliman, deputy chief of the West Java education and culture office, said the province was lacking around 60,000 teaching staff for around 24,000 elementary schools and 40,000 others for 12,000 junior and high schools.

"The teacher shortages were felt over the last eight years after the provincial administration had a zero-growth policy on civil servant recruitment, while 3,000 to 4,000 teachers annually have reached the mandatory pension age and there has been no new recruitment to replace them," he said.

Wasliman conceded the teacher shortages had resulted in a serious negative impact on the quality both of school graduates and human resources in the province. "For example, many elementary school graduates in rural areas in many subdistricts could not read fluently and the quality of high school graduates in the province is really below the national standard," he said.

Wasliman said his office had several times raised the education issue at the coordination meeting with the governor and with universities that were running education and teaching programs, but so far no comprehensive solution has been found to address the problem. Many state- and private-run universities running teaching programs have encouraged their graduates to fill vacancies in schools that are short of teaching staff but many were not interested in the offer, or did not continue at their schools because besides being lowly paid, they were placed in schools remote from urban areas.

Many teachers do not feel at home at their place of assignment because of their temporary status and half pay, he said, "And most teachers who are employed under such nonpermanent status in rural and remote areas, have left their work place and sought other jobs at factories in urban areas." "Teaching is a noble and respectable profession but we have not yet given it the respect it deserves," he said.

Chairman of the West Java legislature's Commission E on education and labor affairs Euchiyat Noor said the legislature had several times asked the provincial administration to rescind the zero- growth policy and set up a joint team to upgrade the status of honorary teachers in all state-run schools to permanent. They would have more certainty under this arrangement, but, so far, the provincial administration had been faced with financial problems in this matter.

"So far, the non-permanent teachers have helped the education programs in elementary and high schools but we have failed to acknowledge their dedication and to improve their conditions of service," he said when receiving 300 nonpermanent teachers here recently.

Ruchyat concurred and said the government should launch an education program in urban areas to improve the awareness of local people of the importance of education. "Many people could not afford to send their children to schools because of financial problems, resulting in a low quality of human resources and a high illiteracy rate in the province," he said.

He cited, for example, that only one in three school-age children in remote areas in Indramayu, Sukabumi and Cianjur in the province went to school and that was why numerous people, mostly unskilled, from the regencies went abroad to seek employment.

According to him, the provincial government should ask for increased funding from the central government to finance the recruitment of more new teachers and to upgrade all the nonpermanent teaching staff in order to cope with the teacher shortages.

"We should feel ashamed because the province has many prestigious universities, institutes and academies, but local people cannot benefit from them because of financial difficulties," he said.

Poor promised free health services

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2002

Annastashya Emmanuelle, Jakarta -- The Health Ministry secured Rp 500 billion (US$48 million) this year from the state's fuel subsidy reduction to provide medical services for the country's 37.3 million poor.

The funds will be distributed directly to 468 mainly state-owned hospitals and 7,000 public health centers throughout Indonesia, starting February but only till April, Minister of Health Achmad Suyudi said Friday. "We hope to be able to reach all of the poor people who could not afford medical services," Suyudi said. Aside from the usual medical services, the program also covers Hepatitis B immunization for infants from disadvantaged families.

As a means of monitoring the funds, the hospitals and public health services are required to provide monthly financial reports to the Ministry of Health. Unlike last year, however, the poor would no longer be required to produce a letter from local authorities explaining their status to receive medical treatment.

Suyudi said all hospitals appointed to provide such services were told not to discriminate against poor patients. "Hospitals should not differentiate treatment between the poor patients and the paying patients. Everyone must be given the same services, with or without a health card," Suyudi stressed.

The minister said that the hospitals should form a team that would verify whether the patients were eligible for ongoing treatment or not.

When asked about poor people in emergency situations who could not reach the appointed hospitals, Suyudi said that any hospital had to give treatment to all emergency patients, including the poor.

"It is unethical for hospitals to reject those in need of immediate medical treatment. The hospitals who do not receive this fund must at least provide first aid, and it could later transfer the patient to hospitals that receive government funds," he said.

He noted that the hospitals that give first aid should be reimbursed. However, the technicalities were still being discussed. Hospitals, including private hospitals, were also required to allocate a certain number of beds in their third class sections for the poor, he said. Therefore, there should be no problem for any hospital to give first aid to poor patients.

This, however, raises questions on the effectiveness of the program. Last year's health services for the poor program failed as many hospitals rejected poor patients despite the fact that they had received funding.

Private hospitals often refuse to attend patients from the lower-income classes, while the dilapidated state-run hospitals often offer only poor quality services. "We'd look into it ... and when there is such a thing, we would send a stern warning letter to the hospital," Suyudi said. "The condition in the field in very unpredictable, and there is no such thing as a perfect system."

Religion/Islam

Muhammadiyah continues push for ethics, morality

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2002

Denpasar -- Muhammadiyah, the second largest Muslim organization in the country, is certain to play a more active role in mediating and moderating the current political and social problems both on domestic and international levels because of itscredibility and independence, says its chairman.

In an interview with The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the organization's annual meeting in Denpasar, Bali on Friday, Ahmad Syafii Maarif said that as a moderate and nonpartisan organization, people still had trust in the organization.

Since its establishment in Yogyakarta in l912, Muhammadiyah has always been regarded as a force of renewal and modernization in the Islamic community. "We have been practicing 'high-politics,' a political movement based on ethics, morality and independence," Syafii claimed.

Domestically, Muhammadiyah can become "a balanced and unbiased referee to help any disputing parties reach a compromise," he said. Internationally, Muhammadiyah can initiate international gatherings among Islamic or non-Islamic countries to discuss and mediate between the two parties.

But, more importantly, the organization wants to focus first on national problems. "We are now living in a period where people live in a social, political and economic imbalances. Everybody is already sick and tired of seeing political leaders bickering with each other...They are like spoiled children," Syafii said.

What Muhammadiyah is urgently doing now is to aggressively spread its campaigns on morality and ethics because figures in political parties, legislative and executives are mostly insensitive and "turn a deaf-ear to the needs of the people."

Syafii said that Muhammadiyah had also been tasked to reveal the real portrayal of Islam and its people in Indonesia, as the most populous Muslim country in the world. "I can assure the outside world, that radical and extremist Islam is not the mainstream movement in Indonesia. It is only a small minority group within the entire Muslim population in the country," Syafii said.

"Islam is a peace-loving religion ... There is often misunderstanding and misperception among those who believe that the radical Muslims represent the entire Muslim community here," he added. But, Syafii said everyone should understand why radicalism emerged here in Indonesia and elsewhere in the world.

In Indonesia, most of these people are the energetic and impatient youth who could no longer trust in the corrupt government system and impotent legal and security apparatus. "They are also sick of seeing hypocrisy shown by our political leaders. They want instant change and abrupt action to stop any irregularities in society. What they are lacking is they do not equip themselves with intellectual instruments to articulate their ideas and to explain the motivation behind their radical actions," Syafii said.

"In the short-term, their actions might appear fruitful but certainly not in the long-term ... This is very dangerous if we idealize their actions. Militancy is always dangerous as it is always viewed through a pair of black and white spectacles," he said. Our problems are now so complex that we cannot look at them as black and white only, he added.

Syafii went on to say that two of Indonesia's largest Muslim organizations, Muhammadiyah and Nadhatul Ulama (NU) had joined hands together to create a more loving and peaceful face of Islam through their religious, social and cultural propagations.

Syafii said more than 300 top executives from all of Muhammadiyah's chapters in Indonesia were taking part in the ongoing Tanwir (annual meeting) of the organization, which will end on Sunday. "There are two main objectives of this year's meeting, internal and external ones," he said. "Internally, it is expected that all participants will have a similar frame of mind of whatMuhammadiyah is fighting for."

"I really expect them to realize that the nation is facing very serious problems, so it requires prompt but wise actions if we want all of the organizations' ideas and policies to materialize."

He also expected both members and executives of Muhammadiyah would widen their radius of communication and open more dialogs with people of different religious, social and cultural backgrounds. "They should build better relationships, share and seek solutions to the nation's problems with everybody, even the atheist people," Syafii confirmed.

Conventional approaches to religious, social, and political problems must be left behind to adjust to the fast-growing, pluralistic society, he said. Externally, Muhammadiyah will forcefully urge the government to improve the living conditions of the people and to be more focused on their programs.

International relations

Indonesians decry Australian PM's visit

Sydney Morning Herald - January 26, 2002

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- A key Indonesian parliamentary committee has demanded that the Government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri consider cancelling the Prime Minister's planned visit to Indonesia next month.

The head of the foreign affairs and security committee, Ibrahim Ambong, said yesterday its members wanted the visit stopped because Australia continued to meddle in Indonesia's internal affairs.

One member of parliament on the committee alleged during a reportedly heated debate that Australia was behind the death last November of the Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay. Mr Ambong said other MPs cited an intelligence report which they claimed strongly indicated that "Australia's accomplices had been playing around with the Papua problem" and were at least "very obvious in supporting the move by Papuans to separate from Indonesia".

Committee members wanted John Howard to clarify his stand on Indonesia's territorial integrity and other issues before any visit. "They've been so many things Australia has said or done that hurt our feelings, such as on illegal migrants, East Timor and more recently Papua," Mr Ambong said.

He said he had told the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, during a committee meeting late on Thursday that MPs from the biggest political parties, including Ms Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, opposed the Howard visit.

But Mr Wirajuda reportedly told the committee that Mr Howard's three-day visit, starting on February 6, had already been scheduled and protocol dictated it could not be cancelled. "Indonesia can pick whoever it wants as good friends but can't shun the neighbours," he was quoted by the Republika newspaper as saying.

Mr Ambong said the committee members were not objecting to Australians. "I suppose the objections refer more to the person, Howard, not Australia as a nation," he said. "Mr Howard has made many comments that hurt Indonesia's feelings."

Mr Howard announced early this month that he had accepted an invitation from Ms Megawati to pay an official visit to Indonesia. "My visit will be an opportunity to discuss a range of important bilateral and regional policy issues with the Indonesian Government and to further strengthen the Australia- Indonesia relationship," Mr Howard said at the time.

Australian officials have arranged for Mr Howard to meet Ms Megawati and Indonesian parliamentary leaders, including the speaker of the highest parliament, Amien Rais.

Mr Ambong stressed yesterday that the committee had decided to make an official recommendation to cancel the visit and was not just criticising it. But Mr Wirajuda's reported comments to the committee make it highly unlikely Ms Megawati would agree to cancel the visit.

Indonesia must get along with Canberra, minister says

Australian Associated Press - January 25, 2002

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda yesterday described Australia as the archipelago's "backyard" and said the government had no choice but to get along with Canberra.

"In the case of the bilateral relationship between Australia and Indonesia, we need to strengthen the relationship," Wirayuda told the National Parliament's foreign affairs commission. "This is because we have ASEAN [the Association of South-East Asian Nations] in our front yard and Australia in our backyard.

"We can choose our friends but we cannot choose our neighbours."

The comments come as the two countries prepare for Prime Minister John Howard to visit Jakarta and the ancient Javanese capital of Yogyakarta from February 6 to 8 on an official visit designed at lifting goodwill.

Wirayuda had been asked by a notoriously anti-Australian MP, Yasril Ananta Baharuddin, why efforts were being put into improving ties with Australia. Baharuddin cited the fallings out the two countries had had over Australia's military intervention in East Timor in 1999 and the stand-off over what to do with asylum seekers passing through Indonesia on their way to Australia.

Of the 17 questions presented to Wirayuda only one related to Australia while the overwhelming majority focused on Indonesia's position in the war against terrorism.

Economy & investment

Pertamina misleads public in defining 'retail price'

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2002

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta -- State-run oil and gas company Pertamina revealed on Friday how it misled the public about the price of kerosene. It's explanation partly explains why the price is about double the Rp 600 "retail price" set by the company.

The government announced on January 16 that kerosene for households and small enterprises was to increase from Rp 400 to just Rp 600 per liter. Since then the price has soared to between Rp 1,000 and Rp 1,500 per liter, prompting widespread outrage.

Public confusion was answered by Pertamina on Friday when it said that what it meant as the ceiling retail price, was in fact the price Pertamina sells the kerosene to dealers. The retail price was the kerosene price per liter based on a radius of 40 kilometers. In Jakarta, the administration decided on January 17 that the price was Rp 760 per liter.

The further the distance from Jakarta, the more expensive the price becomes. In West Java, the price is Rp 740 per liter while in Banten the price is yet to be announced but is expected to be Rp 738 per liter. Ngatiman, a kiosk owner from Tangerang, claimed he bought the kerosene from subdealers for Rp 1,000 per liter and sold at Rp 1,100.

The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) chairwoman Indah Suksmaningsih blasted Pertamina for misleading the public. "Pertamina definitely didn't give the right explanation to the consumers. They gave the illusion that the kerosene price only slightly increased. The fact is that at the market the price is far too high above the ceiling retail price."

Indah recommended Pertamina distribute placards showing the standard kerosene price to control prices. She also urged Pertamina to change the ceiling retail price term into the ceiling profiteer price.

The prices of other fuels are the same throughout the country -- premium (sold at Rp 1,550), automotive diesel oil (Rp 1,150), industrial diesel oil (Rp 1,110) and fuel oil (Rp 925). However, kerosene prices vary widely.

Pertamina declined to be responsible for the skyrocketing kerosene price at the retail level. "The working contract between Pertamina and kerosene dealers states that Pertamina's charge [over its supply] will end once the tanker trucks carrying the kerosene leaves through Pertamina's depot gate," said Sumarsono, Pertamina marketing unit III's general manager overseeing fuel supply in West Java, Jakarta and Banten provinces.

"Outside the gate, it's the dealers' responsibility to transport the kerosene to the consumers' hand." Sumarsono blamed the "irrational" price on the long-chain from dealers, subdealers and retailers.

YLKI saw Pertamina's statement as an attempt to evade the charges. "If Pertamina wants to seek an excuse from the responsibility, they must release their business as the (natural) source belongs to the people," Indah said.

Even though Sumarsono said that it was not responsible for the soaring price hike, it vowed to take firm measures to crack down on dealers and sub-dealers found guilty for increasing kerosene prices to inflated levels.

"We've asked the police for help to eradicate irregularities in exchange for a 50 percent share of the confiscated fuel," Sumarsono said. Police along with Pertamina's personnel have reportedly confiscated thousands of tons of hoarded fuel during a two-week operation.

Sumarsono even complained that all confiscated fuel -- being stored as police "evidence" -- was now being stored at Pertamina's depots which in turn took up existing space for Pertamina's own fuel. "We can do nothing to the evidence as the legal proceeding drags on. We can't mix it with our own fuel so larger spaces are needed for them," he said.

City bus fares to rise between 10% and 20%

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2002

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta -- Owing to the rising costs of fuel and spare parts, the city administration has said that it will soon increase city bus fares by between 10 and 20 percent.

Administration officials will announce formal implementation of the increase "in the next two weeks," said Putu Wirta Antara, Jakarta deputy chair of the Land Transportation Owners Association (Organda) after meeting Governor Sutiyoso at City Hall on Friday.

Putu, who is also chairman of the Jakarta Transportation Bus Cooperative (Kopaja), said that fares for medium buses would be increased from Rp 900 to Rp 1,000, while for larger buses, fares would rise from Rp 1,000 to Rp 1,200.

During Putu's meeting with the governor, however, fares for air- conditioned buses and taxi meters were ruled out from being part of a possible hike.

The governor's plan to increase bus fares comes despite the fact that Organda had recommended that there be no fare hike if the fuel price increase was below 30 percent. The government recently announced that fuel price would increase by an average of 22 percent meaning that, in effect, the bus fares should not be affected.

On Monday, Sutiyoso claimed that the fare hike was necessary to accommodate the rise in fuel prices. But Organda chairman Aip Syaifuddin countered that his organization would not endorse the fare rise. Aip said the fuel price only contributed to 4 percent of the overall operational costs for city buses.

But on Friday, when asked why Organda finally supported the fare hike, he said that increases in current prices for spare parts -- such as tires and filter oil -- have already reached between 15 and 20 percent.

"On Monday, there was no hike in prices for spare parts. But they have been increased -- I don't know why. You can ask the tire producers," Aip said testily. He added that prices for spare parts contributed to a full 30 percent of the operational costs of city buses.

The planned increase of between Rp 100 and Rp 200 is probably meaningless for some people. But for common people, it will be considerable. Overall, their transportation costs will jump significantly, as many people must take two or three different buses from their homes just to get to their place of work.

Asked whether the bus operators would increase their public service if fares were went up, Aip said, "if we want good service, the fares should be far higher than the current ones."

However, City Transportation Agency head Rustam Effendy played down the likelihood of a bus fare increase. "Right now, we have yet to think about it," Rustam told reporters. But he said his office and Organda were ready to calculate a proper fare increase due to the increase of the fuel prices. He would not say when his office would complete this calculation.

According to officials, the city presently owns about 10,000 buses, although only 68 percent of them are operational: the rest have fallen into disrepair -- either from use, or just plain old age.

Committee reveals flaws in debt extention plan

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2002

Berni K. Moestafa, Jakarta -- A review by a government watchdog has exposed glaring imbalances in a plan to extend the payment period for large debtors of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) that, if not revised, risked the government's effort to recoup some $13 billion in lost state funds.

In what marks another hit at the controversial debt extension plan, the independent Oversight Committee (OC) said on Thursday that only cooperative debtors should be eligible to benefit from the plan. This would rule out the majority of debtors, whom IBRA says are uncooperative but in respect of whom the plan is actually targeted. "For the sake of justice, the FSPC decision, if applied, should consider whether debtors have shown good will or not," OC chairman Mar'ie Muhammad said in a statement.

The OC said that various of its studies had shown that most debtors had shown a "lack of good will" in meeting their obligations. Its recommendations are not binding. But the OC reports to the Financial Sector Policy Committee (FSPC), which groups together senior economics ministers in charge of IBRA's large debt deals.

The FSPC approved an IBRA initiated plan last month to grant debtors an extension of their repayment periods, which for many end this year. The shareholders' settlement program applies to former bank owners, whose banks the government bailed out of the financial crisis in the late '90s.

It later turned out that most had misused the bailout funds, including redirecting them to affiliates in violation of Bank Indonesia's legal lending limit ruling.

To avoid prosecution, the former bankers agreed to a four-year cash and asset settlement program, starting in 1998. But three years into the program, almost all have been avoiding repayment, which has led IBRA to bring in the debt extension plan.

Under the plan, debtors will have up to 10 years instead of four, and must pay interest of at least only 9 percent as against the current rate of some 17 percent, depending on Bank Indonesia benchmark rates.

But as the easier terms of payment have attracted public criticism, the OC has identified more imbalances that may come at the expense of IBRA. The plan offers debt haircuts as incentives, which the OC says should be given only after debtors repay their debts.

The OC also noted the absence of any measures to prevent debtors from stripping off the value of their assets before handing them over to IBRA. Debtors who, according to an internal IBRA audit, owe more than their present debt deal stipulates, should have their deals revised upwards to reflect the actual amount, the OC added.

It said the former bankers should only be released from the threat of prosecution after they had settled their debts, and not before. The plan has yet to receive the governments' full support, and an interministerial team is currently at work reviewing it.

Intricate BCA sale racing against time

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2002

Riyadi Suparno, Jakarta -- The Salim Group is lurking behind the scenes, ready to grab its former jewel in the crown, Bank Central Asia. That's the warning given by various quarters to the government in the sale of its controlling shares in the bank.

The government has announced that it has long banned the Salim Group from buying back the bank. Bank Indonesia, which supervises commercial banks, has also been murmuring the same tune.

However, both the government and the central bank have not been able to guarantee that Salim will not return to BCA. Worse still, they have refused to announce what they would do if Salim eventually bought BCA through various fronts, including nominees currently bidding for BCA shares.

The reality speaks for itself. When Salim refused to honor an order from the central bank to discharge its remaining stake of around seven percent in BCA, no action was taken against Salim. This shows that the central bank is powerless against Salim. Therefore, before it gets too late to correct, the best thing the government and the central bank could do is to prevent Salim from entering BCA and to select the best investor for the bank.

The imbroglio surrounding the shoddy sale of automotive company Indomobil Sukses Internasional should serve as a good lesson for the government not to repeat its mistake when selling assets, in this case BCA.

Assuming that the government and the central bank all have good intentions, they must jointly pool their efforts in selling BCA, which includes the selection of bidders.

Conducting the sale separately according to their scope of authority will only open loopholes for Salim and other unqualified bidders to grab the bank. The reality now is that the nine consortiums bidding for BCA have not yet finalized the members of their consortiums. They have also not even given proof that they have the money to buy BCA.

This reality will only spark speculation that the doors are still wide open for Salim to regain BCA. If the consortiums bidding for BCA are not required to state their members, the bad experience concerning Indomobil is likely to repeat itself. Nobody knew who were behind Trimegah Securities, the winning bidder for Indomobil, until Trimegah announced it only on Monday.

If this happens with BCA, Salim or other problematic domestic conglomerates, along with former government officials and generals, will easily get into BCA.

Another disturbing fact is that bidders are not (or not yet) required to give proof that they have the money to buy BCA. This again will provide added leeway for Salim or other unqualified investors to snatch BCA.

One analyst scrutinizing the sale of BCA has identified six out of the nine bidders as prone to being used as a front by Salim and its cronies. They are suspected of having no available capital. With no requirement to prove their funding, Salim or others will find it easy to ride on the back of these six bidders, only being required to place money on the table after any of the six bidders wins.

This reality should alarm the government and the central bank, which only have until January 28 to correct the situation.

On the government's side, the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) and the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) must first of all work together to scrutinize the bidders.

All and all, the correction process should start with IBRA. IBRA should first of all require all bidders to prove that they have the money to purchase BCA. Such proof could be in the form of a bank guarantee or an escrow account.

If all bidders were required to provide proof of funding, this would automatically reduce the number of bidders. Bidders suspected to be used as a front by Salim would automatically be kicked out; Salim would not be able to provide funds six times larger than the amount needed to buy BCA. By requiring proof of funding, Salim would likely put their money in one bidder only.

After that comes the role of Bapepam. Bapepam, as a capital market watchdog, must eliminate the possibility of nominees, trusts, private capital or other vehicles being used by Salim to buy BCA. Bapepam chairman Herwidayatmo has promised to produce a ruling on the nominees.

Herwid, however, argued that his party could not issue such a ruling as it was not required by the Capital Market Law, unless there was a request from Bank Indonesia. Consequently, such a ruling has never been issued, while the deadline for the bidders to hand over their final bids is fast approaching, January 28.

Without such a ruling, it would be impossible to prevent Salim from buying BCA through a nominee. The absence of such a ruling would complicate the effort of the central bank in conducting fit and proper tests for the bidders.

People appearing before the central bank for the tests could be different from the real investors, who might be blacklisted by the central bank.

The fact that the consortiums have not yet finalized their members will only add to the complication of such fit and proper tests.

To safeguard the sales of BCA, Bank Indonesia should ask Bapepam to make a regulation on nominees and also ask IBRA to require all the bidders to finalize their members.

This way, the central bank would be able to carry out fit and proper tests to ensure that the real investors bidding for BCA were the right people.

If Bapepam and IBRA are unable to meet the demand, the central bank could still do its job well by imposing tighter tests, and make it transparent so that the public could see who were vying for BCA.

Special attention should be given to special purpose vehicle companies, trusts and private capitals as they usually act on their clients demands. The central bank should demand these companies explain their ultimate beneficiaries.

If all the three institutions -- Bank Indonesia, IBRA and Bapepam -- could work together hand in hand, they would be able to shortlist the nine bidders and pick the most credible investor for BCA. Thus, they have to sit together to make a comprehensive strategy in selecting the winner for BCA. And they have to do all this before January 28.

If such a comprehensive strategy is not in place before January 28, the deadline for the bidders to submit their final bids must be postponed to a later date. If this postponement is not possible, the government must require IBRA to work together with the central bank and spend enough time to scrutinize the bids and announce the winner. Otherwise, we will end up at square one, in which the same old players will be running BCA and abusing public trust, again.

Nine bidders for BCA shares

1. Standard Chartered Bank Plc., 2. Newbridge Capital, 3. Farallon Capital, 4. Bank Mega Consortium, 5. Dynamic Choice, 6. Indonesia Recovery Fund Limited, 7. Berca Consortium, 8. Consortium of Bank Panin shareholders led by PT Trimegah Securities, 9. Consortium of three investors, including Indonesia's Setdco Group.

Fuel prices hike won't hurt the poor, says government

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2002

Jakarta -- Amid mounting concern over the negative impact of its fuel price hike policy, the government said the poor should not be affected as it had allocated to them sufficient compensation funds of Rp 2.85 trillion (US$274 million) this year.

Minister of Information Syamsul Muarif said on Wednesday the funds would be disbursed to some 55 million poor people in the country. Speaking at a media conference held to disseminate more information about the fuel price hike policy, he said that each poor family, with an average of five members, would receive around Rp 350,000 worth of assistance. The money would be more than sufficient to offset the increase in the expenditure of poor families, estimated at about Rp 170,000 per family per year, he said.

The conference was also attended by Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro and Minister of Cooperatives Alimarwan Hanan. Syamsul said the higher expenditure of poor families was caused by an increase in fuel prices, a 10 percent to 20 percent hike in transportation costs and inflation.

According to government data, poor people in the country total around 40 million, with monthly expenditure of Rp 72,909 to Rp 95,929.

The government raised fuel prices by an average of 22 percent starting from January 17. The price will change again in March, thereafter to be set monthly based on fuel prices in neighboring Singapore. The progressive fuel price hikes are part of the government's attempt to reduce fuel subsidies in order to ease the burden on the state budget. It could also help minimize the widespread smuggling of heavily subsidized fuel products out of the country.

But the raising of fuel prices is politically sensitive in the country, particularly as the public has endured years of economic hardship. Even before the government raised fuel prices, the price of some basic goods, such as rice and kerosene, had soared due to massive hoarding, although prices have now started to go down again.

The fuel compensation program will therefore play an important role in minimizing the negative impact on poor people. However, similar compensation programs have been a target of corruption in the past. Syamsul said the government would do its best to channel the funds to the targeted people and minimize fund misuse.

The government would carry out an audit of the funds to ensure transparency in their allocation, he said, adding that it would also audit the compensation funds disbursed during the past two years.

Of the total Rp 2.85 trillion in compensation funds, the government will allocate about Rp 1.28 trillion to the education program, Rp 570 billion to health and social support, and Rp 500 billion to food support. The government allocated Rp 800 billion and Rp 1.8 trillion to the compensation fund in 2000 and 2001 respectively.

Indonesia to import 1 million tons of rice

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2002

Jakarta -- The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) said on Tuesday that it would import some one million tons of rice this year, higher than an earlier target of 500,000 to 700,000 tons, to meet domestic demand.

Widjanarko Puspoyo, Bulog's chief, said the move was aimed at anticipating possible reduced domestic output due to poor harvests and the impact of the El Ni$o weather phenomenon.

"We [Bulog] will raise the target for rice imports to about one million tons this year," Widjanarko told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with House of Representatives Commission III for agriculture and food affairs.

The imports are part of the agency's plan to supply about three million tons of rice this year.

Widjanarko said the country's rice production had been steadily declining since 1998 due to the shrinking total crop area.

Many agricultural experts, however, blamed the decline in the rice output on the government's rice policy which, they said, was aimed at keeping the price of rice low and, as such, had failed to improve farmers' welfare.

The low purchasing power of farmers to buy fertilizers has thus affected the country's rice output.

The price of unhusked rice in several provinces hasreportedly dropped to below Rp 1,000 (9.6 US cents) per kilogram today, lower than the floor price of Rp 1,400 set under the government's rice stabilization program last year.

Regarding El Nino, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has predicted that the weather phenomenon was likely to return this year. El Nino last occurred in the Pacific in 1997-1998. It was blamed for a searing drought in Indonesia, Australia and the Philippines.

Suhardo, Bulog's spokesman, earlier told The Jakarta Post that the return of El Nino would cause a decline in domestic production of about 5 percent to 10 percent. Bulog predicted that rice production was expected to reach about 51 million tons this year.

Indonesia, traditionally one of the world's largest rice buyers, has signed a one-year deal to import some 500,000 tons of rice from the government-run Vietnam Southern Food Corp. Under the deal, Bulog would pay for the rice by means of a"deferred payment" during the two years following the shipment.

Widjanarko said the realization of imports from Vietnam would very much depend on domestic needs. As of January, total imports from Vietnam amounted to about 100,000 tons.

"A further 100,000 tons are expected to arrive in Indonesia in March, while the remainder will be adjusted according to domestic needs," he said. Widjanarko said that it was still unclear from where Indonesia would import the other 500,000 tons.

Suhardo earlier said that the agency was now considering importing additional rice from countries other than Vietnam. "We may import rice from Thailand, China or the U.S this year," he said.

Thailand has been the world's leading rice exporter for decades, followed by the US and Vietnam.

MPs want logistics agency to resume price-control role

Agence France Presse - January 21, 2002

Jakarta -- An Indonesian parliamentary commission wants the national logistics agency Bulog to resume its control over the price of rice, a legislator said Monday.

"Since Bulog no longer became an institution to stabilise the price of rice, there is no longer a capability to control prices," the chairman of the agriculture and food commission, Awal Kusuma, was quoted by the Detikcom online news service as saying.

The government abolished Bulog's monopoly over the rice trade in 1998 following pressure from the International Monetary Fund, which is coordinating a five billion dollar aid package.

Kusuma was speaking after the commission decided to ask the government to reinstate Bulog's role. He said that without any controlling mechanism, the price of the nation's staple food could rise without any reason as it has done recently.

Despite assurances that rice stocks are enough to meet demand, the price soared before a government decision last week to raise fuel prices.

After 1998 Bulog launched two special market operations at the government's direction to keep prices down.

This year these will be replaced by a "rice-for-the-poor" program, in which a family can obtain 20 kilograms of rice a month at about a third of the market price for 12 months. There are about 14.7 million poor families across the country.

Bulog Chief Wijarnako Puspoyo said last week that rice should not be left to the free market. He said his agency was seeking to revive its former role in controlling the rice trade and distribution in an effort to stabilise the price.